Speakers:

Designing the future
Why do we need smart cities?

How do we best design cities of the future, where culture, form, function and technology converge to improve the quality of life of its people, as well as boost their economic productivity in a globally connected world?

Developing Global Connectivity through Digital Technology

Advancements in digital technology and innovation foster entrepreneurship, enable nations to develop rapidly and connect the world in new ways. What is the role of tech cities in developing the digital technology industry? What are the prospects and opportunities for collaboration between these clusters around the world?

Business networking breakfast (BNB)

Venue: Capital Hall
BNB is developed to encourage greater business networking opportunities for the Forum participants. The BNB during the 9th WIEF will allow like-minded individuals to get to know each other in an informal setting and discuss relevant issues pertaining to their respective industry.

business networking lunch

Non-communicable diseases (NCD) account for more than 60% of global deaths with most occurring in low to middle income countries. Without new interventions, the casualty will rise causing severe damage to economic development and healthcare systems. What are the preventive steps available in the healthcare industry?

Based in Kuwait, Abdulkader has over 30 years of diversified financial services experience in major markets including Bahrain, New York, London, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. His areas of activity have included trade finance, real estate finance, securities, and alternative finance at various global and regional financial institutions.

As the general manager of a foreign bank branch in New York, he was responsible for securing the first US banking regulatory approvals of alternative financial instruments in the mortgage and installment credit/sale as banking instruments.

Later as the founding member of a de novo bank project, he secured US regulatory approval for Islamic profit sharing deposits.

Abdulkader serves as a technical expert on the Sharia’a boards of Bank Muscat Meethaq, Sterling Bank (Nigeria) and University Bank (USA). Abdulkader serves as a director of Al-Khabeer Capital in Jeddah, chairman and director of Al-Khabeer International in Bahrain, as well as acting as a member of the international advisory board for Islamic capital markets at the Securities Commission of Malaysia. Abdulkader speaks English, Arabic, French and Spanish.

Adam Ismail Ebrahim is the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer of the Oasis Group, a wealth management organisation he established in 1997 with the goal of providing a global platform through which the ethically conscious investor could protect and grow their wealth in a relatively low risk manner, without sacrificing returns. Today, Oasis offers an extensive wealth management product range to suit all investor life stages and services clients across 41 countries globally from its offices located in London, Dublin and South Africa.

The leadership, focus and investment approach taken by Mr. Ebrahim in the Shari’ah and conventional space has resulted in Oasis garnering a number of awards in recognition of its excellence in both the management and performance of its products.

Adam graduated with an honours degree in Economics from the University of Cape Town where he also completed a Post Graduate Diploma in Accounting. He is an admitted Chartered Accountant and Auditor in South Africa and has also completed the CFA Institute’s Chartered Financial Analyst Programme.

Prior to establishing Oasis, Adam cultivated his experience through the time he spent working for Deloitte & Touche in South Africa and in London before assuming positions as an analyst, portfolio manager, director, and partner of a prominent asset management organisation. With over 25 years of experience in the financial services industry Adams skill and expertise has ensured that Oasis has remained at the fore within the wealth management industry.

Ali Aslan Gümüsay is a Doctoral Scholar at the University of Oxford, Founder and Chairman of the Social Incubator Zahnräder Network and Member of the Think Tank 30, Club of Rome.

Ali works as a teacher, researcher, public speaker, and consultant on topics such as organizational theory, strategic management, faith and business, innovation, education and (social) entrepreneurship. Recently, he co-edited a book in German called 7 Virtues Reloaded.

Ali’s research employs an institutional perspective to explore the intersection of religion and companies, entrepreneurship in professional settings as well asacademic entrepreneurship.

Ali worked as a strategy consultant for the Boston Consulting Group, was an Affiliate at the Institute for Science, Innovation & Society, a Summer Fellow at the Global Public Policy Institute and a Visiting Fellow at Istanbul Sehir University. He holds an MSc, with distinction, from the University of Oxford, a BSc, 1st Class Honours, from the University of Warwick, and a Diplôme from the Institut d’Études Politiques de Paris. Three years ago, together with two colleagues he won 100,000 Euros for a Meta-University Project from the German Federal Ministry of Economics & Technology (but had to decline). He was recently chosen as a Top 99 under 33 Foreign Policy Leader.

Amr Al Menhali joined ADCB in 2006, after spending seven years in one of the largest banks in the UAE. He oversaw the credit side in ADCB and managed the restructuring of ADCB’s entire Consumer and SME Credit Division, most notably through the acquisition of the Royal Bank of Scotland’s retail business in the UAE and the initial launch of the Islamic Banking in 2008. His instrumental contribution was recognised leading to his appointment as EVP and Head of ADCB Islamic Banking, in 2011.

Since then, Amr has played a significant role in the business development of ADCB Islamic Banking and the first initiative he undertook was to re-brand and re-launch the Islamic business from a product focused to fully fledge financial services, resulting in a tremendous growth in the business portfolios and revenues. Now, ADCB Islamic Banking has evolved to be the largest Islamic Window in the UAE.

In addition to his business role at ADCB Islamic Banking, Al Menhali is the Vice Chairman of Abu Dhabi Commercial Islamic finance company; a board member of Abu Dhabi Finance, a leading Mortgage Finance company; and also represents ADCB in the National Anti Money Laundering Committee of the Central Bank of the UAE.

As a testament to his significant contribution, ADCB Islamic Banking has won two prestigious awards in 2012. These awards were in the categories of “The Most Improved Islamic Bank in UAE” from GIFA and “The Most Improved Islamic Bank in M.E.” from Euro Money. 3 other awards won this year are listed in the Awards section of this document.

ANDREA VAHL
Social Media Consultant,
www.andreavahl.com
United States of America

Andrea Vahl is a Social Media Consultant and Speaker, who is passionate about helping businesses understand and leverage the power of social media to actually grow their business. Andrea is the co-author of Facebook Marketing All-in-One for Dummies and worked with Social Media Examiner as their Community Manager, a site consistently ranked in the top 3 Marketing Blogs in the world. She also uses her Improv comedy skills to blog as a slightly cranky character, Grandma Mary – Social Media Edutainer on her site at www.AndreaVahl.com.

An international consultant and speaker, Andrea has presented with Guy Kawasaki, Mari Smith, Mike Stelzner, John Jantsch, and other world authorities in the field of social media and marketing. She has been a guest blogger for Social Media Examiner, Copyblogger, DIYThemes, Useful Social Media, and regularly write E-books for Hubspot. Andrea Vahl’s proven ability to make social media marketing easy to understand and implement has directly impacted the bottom line of thousands of companies through her training and one-on-one consulting. Learn more about Andrea’s books, resources, and get her Quick Start Guide to Social Media for Business on her website at www.AndreaVahl.com.

Azeemeh joined Gatehouse Bank as May 2010, after working as Vice Consul Energy and US Oil & Gas Sector Head for the British Consulate General in Houston, being responsible for inward investment and trade between the US and the UK in oil & gas and energy financial services. She was awarded the 2009 Global Individual Excellence Award from Lord Davis, UK Trade & Investment Minister.

Azeemeh also has experience in the US Department of Commerce, Bank of America and Washington Mutual. Since joining Gatehouse Bank, Ms. Zaheer completed her Islamic Finance Qualification in 2010. More recently, at Gatehouse Bank, Azeemeh has led the outstanding Women’s Initiative, which targets women in the Middle East seeking to develop their knowledge of investment opportunities, and in particular, discover Real Estate from an investment perspective. Azeemeh has recently been shortlisted as a ‘Next Generation: Woman to Watch’ in the Real Estate Forum 20th Annual ‘Women of Influence’ List by ALM.

BOB SCHUKAI
Global Head of Mobile Technology,
Thomson Reuters,
United States of America

Bob Schukai is the Global Head of Mobile Technology for Thomson Reuters, with responsibility for overseeing the development and execution of the mobile growth strategy across the organisation. His remits include the creation and deployment of system platforms, business model development, world-class user experiences, and new business opportunities.

From 2005-2010, Bob was the Vice President of Wireless/Broadband Technologies for Turner Broadcasting System Inc., leading the technology strategy and deployment for mobile web and applications platforms. He also served as an Industrial Board member for the Mobile Virtual Centre of Excellence. Bob spent 18 years working for Motorola, Inc., in the U.S. and U.K., as director of global 3G strategy and business development, overseeing global strategy and business development activities for 3G handsets.

He was recently appointed ambassador to New York City and the east coast of the United States for the London Tech City initiative, driven by the British government and the United Kingdom Trade and Investment group.

Bob holds a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and a Master's degree in electrical engineering from Arizona State University.

BORIS JOHNSON
Mayor of London,
United Kingdom

Boris Johnson has been Mayor of London since May 2008, when he received the largest personal mandate in British political history.

Few Londoners have entirely English descent, and Boris is no exception. Born in New York in 1964, he describes himself as a 'one man melting-pot', with French, Turkish, Russian and German ancestry.

Besides his work as a journalist, Boris has published several books, including 'Friends, Voters and Countrymen', an autobiographical account of his experience of the 2001 election campaign, a novel, 'Seventy-Two Virgins'. He has also produced a TV series on Roman History from his book of the same name, 'The Dream of Rome'. In 2011 he published 'Johnson’s Life of London', a celebration of some of the people who gave London its vibrancy and character, from Roman times to the present day.

Under his tenure crime in London has fallen 11%, the capital has seen record investment in transport and the city staged what are widely acknowledged to be the most successful Olympic and Paralympic Games ever.

In his first term he introduced a hugely popular cycle hire scheme and a new replacement for the 'Routemaster', the cleanest and greenest diesel hybrid in the world. He also oversaw the building of a record number of new affordable homes.

Boris has made jobs and growth his key focus during his second term, prioritising house building, investment in road and rail infrastructure, and support for financial services and the tech sector, as well as championing low and stable tax rates and the construction of a new multi runway hub airport to the east of London.

As well as being a passionate cyclist, Boris enjoys painting, and playing tennis. He and his wife Marina have four children and live in north London.

Clare Woodcraft, a fluent Arabist, heads up Emirates Foundation – an independent UAE foundation that aims to support youth development through the model of venture philanthropy. The Foundation has a dynamic portfolio of focused programs that aim to guide, inspire and empower young people in the UAE to meet their full potential. It focuses on three core areas: social inclusion, community involvement and leadership and empowerment.

Prior to this role, Clare was Deputy Director at Shell Foundation – an ‘enterprise based’ corporate foundation that builds social enterprises to address global development challenges related to the energy sector. Previously Clare worked as the Regional Director of Communications for Shell in the Middle East and North Africa managing Shell’s social investment (CSR) portfolio and a regional team in fourteen countries. This involved developing local talent and working closely with civil society to identify core developmental needs that can deliver impact.

Earlier, Clare headed up Visa International’s emerging markets Public Affairs department (based in the UAE) working closely with governments and financial sectors in the Middle East, Africa and Eastern Europe to see how electronic payments could make a contribution to socio-economic development.

Clare has spent a total of 20 years living in emerging economies (mainly in the Middle East) and has written extensively on issues related to sustainable development with a particular focus on Palestine and the Arab World. She worked in various capacities including as a development practitioner, a journalist (Finance Editor for Middle East Economic Survey) and in the corporate sector in social investment, government relations and communications. She holds a BA degree in Arabic and French from Salford University and a MSc in Development from the London School of Economics.

Dato’ Dr Norraesah Mohamad, is the Executive Chairman of My E.G. Services Berhad, an IT service provider. She is also Executive Chairman of Embunaz Ventures Sdn Bhd, a family owned Investment Company involved in Education and Hospitality sector.

Dato’ Dr Norraesah is a member of the Board of Trustee of the World Islamic Economic Forum (WIEF), a member of its International Advisory Panel and heads the WIEF Businesswomen Network.

She obtained a PhD (Economic Science) International Economics and International Finance from University of Paris I, Pantheon-Sorbonne, France in 1986. In 1982, she obtained her Masters in International Economics Relations from International Institute of Public Administration, France and Masters in International Economics and Finance from University of Paris I, Pantheon-Sorbonne, France. She obtained her first Degree in Economics from University of Malaya and also earned a Diploma in Commercial Policy from GATT, Geneva.

She has over forty-one (41) years of working experience in the field of banking, investment consultancy and international trade and commerce. She worked with the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) from 1972 to 1985, during which time she was in charge of trade policies and multilateral trade negotiations, trade fairs and missions. From 1986 to 1988, she was attached to the Ministry of Finance, responsible for national privatisation programmes and debt management. In 1988, she left the public sector to join ESSO Production Malaysia Inc. as Communications Manager.

From 1990 to 1991, she assumed the position of Managing Director with a consulting firm which provides financial and investment advisory services. She was later appointed as the Chief Representative of Credit Lyonnais Bank in Malaysia in 1991, a position she held until 1998. She was the Chairman of Bank Kerjasama Rakyat Malaysia, the largest Cooperative Bank of Malaysia, from 2000 to 2003. She was then appointed Chairman of Alcatel Network Systems from 2003 to 2005. She currently sits on the Board of several listed companies and private limited companies.

She was appointed a Senator from October 2005 to February 2008. She is a recipient of several state awards and was conferred the Chevalier de La Legion d’Honneur from the French Government in 2004.

She sits on several taskforces / committees on economics, education and entrepreneurship of the party, NGOs and those constituted by the Government. She is also a known motivational speaker.

Her other professional affiliations include OECD Centre for Development, Paris (1982) and a consultant for UNCTAD on Malaysia’s Trade Relations with Socialist Countries of Eastern Europe (1979).

Norhalim is the Chief Executive Officer of Malaysian Technology Development Corporation (MTDC). MTDC is a wholly owned subsidiary of Khazanah Nasional, the investment arm of the Malaysian Government. Norhalim has been the CEO of MTDC since June 2008 and has extensive experience in the commercialisation of public sector universities research results, early stage technology ventures, innovation policy development and fund management.

He is one of the pioneers in public sector research results commercialisation in Malaysia and had played many roles related to the overall development of the Malaysian technology commercialisation experience; as a venture capital fund manager, government grant manager, incubator manager and as an industry expert in various public sector committees. He joined MTDC a few months after its formation in 1993 and has had the opportunity to be deeply involved in the Malaysian innovation ecosystem development.

MTDC is a unique organisation operating within the strategic convergent space that overlaps between the public universities and the industry. As a private company, MTDC views commercialisation projects from an investor perspective. As a government agency, MTDC plays an important role to encourage, support, develop, nurture and accelerate successful commercialisation especially of publicly funded research results. Norhalim sits on the board of several MTDC investee companies,among them Globetronics Technology Berhad and PrimeraDx.

He is a graduate in Accountancy and also holds a Master Degree in Business Administration (Finance) from the United Kingdom.

He started his career as an Accountant with Rothmans of Pall Mall (M) Berhad in 1984 and has over the years, acquired extensive experience in auditing, corporate finance and financial management in various positions in public listed companies such as C.I. Holding Berhad, Arab Malaysian Group and Malaysian Resources Corporation Berhad. In year 2002, he was made the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Putera Capital Berhad, a main board public listed company with activities in manufacturing, construction, property development and engineering.

With more than 30 years involvement in the corporate sector, he has been appointed on the Board of several companies in various industries such as financial services, government link companies, aviation and aerospace, investment holding company etc.

With his vast experience and expertise, he was appointed by the Prime Minister of Malaysia on 16 August 2006 to lead HDC; HDC was established on 18th September 2006; to develop the halal industry with a mission of making Malaysia as the Global Halal Hub.

DATO’ SRI DR KAMAL JIT SINGH
Special Advisor,
Agensi Inovasi Malaysia

Prior to his appointment as the Special Advisor to Agensi Inovasi Malaysia in August 2013, Dato’ Sri Kamal was the CEO of UNIK (Special Innovation Unit) Prime Minister’s Office, reporting directly to the Malaysian Prime Minister. He was the central figure behind the creation of Agensi Inovasi Malaysia Act 178 which led to the setting up of Agensi Inovasi Malaysia (AIM), a statutory body for implementing innovation activities in the country.

Dato’ Sri Kamal was responsible for formulating the National Innovation Strategy (NIS), that serves as a blueprint for all of AIM’sactivities and the National Biomass Strategy which was crafted to convert Malaysia’s agricultural biomass (waste) into higher value products, creating an additional RM30 billion in the country’s Gross National Income and 66,000 new high-value job opportunities by the year 2020. He also developed the National Synthetic Rubber Strategy, designed to increase Malaysia’s global market share as well as a comprehensive Roadmap to establish Malaysia as the Food Valley for Southeast Asia, creating an additional GNI of RM18 billion and RM30 billion respectively.

Working closely with other government ministries and agencies, universities as well as the private sector, Dato’ Sri Kamal conceptualised several key initiatives aimed at improving the country’s innovation eco-system, closing gaps in research funding, education system and innovation skills training, and also IP commercialisation. He also spearheaded projects that encourage commercialisation of local innovations by fostering close collaboration between Industry and Academia.

Prior to UNIK, Dato’ Sri Kamal was a Managing Partner in the Global Innovation Research Centre, a consultancy specialising in Innovation Methodologies implemented in more than 200 SMEs and other organisations. Prior to that, he was the CEO of British Telecom’s Asian Research Centre for eight years.

Datuk Badlisham Ghazali was appointed the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) in January 2006.

As CEO, Datuk Badlisham is responsible to lead and drive the Malaysian Government’s Vision 2020 of Transforming the Nation into a Knowledge-based Economy through the enablement, creation and utilisation of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) applications and services.

As a member of the Ministry of Education’s Cluster School Advisory Board and the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation’s National Science Centre Advisory Board, he believes in a bright future through ICT and is keen on promoting ICT among children and students, encouraging them to take it up as a career of choice. Datuk Badlisham was also appointed as an adjunct professor with the Multimedia Faculty of Limkokwing University of Creative Technology in February 2008,

Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah has been officially appointed as the Director General of Health Malaysia on the 1st of March 2013. He was previously appointed to the post of Deputy Director General of Health (Medical) on 28 January 2008.

His leadership includes the Head Department of Surgery at the state of the art tertiary referral hospital for breast and endocrine disorders in Putrajaya Hospital, Malaysia. He was the Senior Vice President College of Surgeons Malaysia and the 11th President of the Asian Association of Endocrine Surgeons (AsianAES).

Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah was the Foundation Visitor to the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons Annual Scientific Congress in Hong Kong in 2008. He delivered the prestigious British Journal of Surgery lecture 2010 in Birmingham UK and was the special invited speaker to the Japanese Association of Endocrine Surgeons 2011 in Tokyo.

He has extensive publicaton in local and international journals, with chapers written in textbook of Endocrine Surgery (Principle and practice Springer August 2009) and Thyroid and Parathyroid Surgery 2010 textbook.

Prof. Dato’ Seri Ir. Dr. Zaini Ujang is the Secretary-General II, Ministry of Education, Malaysia since June 2013. He was the fifth Vice-Chancellor of University Technology Malaysia (October 2008 - May 2013) and the first recipient of the prestigious Merdeka Award for the category of Outstanding Scholastics Achievement in 2009.

His academic contributions are in the field of environmental management and technology, particularly water and wastewater treatment sustainable resource strategies and industrial ecology. Apart from his involvement in his academics, he also sits on various public agencies such as Chairman of Environmental Quality Council, Malaysia (since 2009), and member of National Water Services Commission (2007 - 2014).

He has written more than 250 scientific papers published in leading academic journals and proceedings, and 33 books on environmental engineering, water sustainability, higher education and learning innovation.

He is also active in voluntary bodies: Vice-President of International Water Association (2004 - 2006), Editor of Water Science and Technology, an international journal (since 2000), and Vice-President of the Harvard Business School Alumni Club of Malaysia (2010 - 2012).

He has a B. Eng. (UTM) in Chemical Engineering, MSc and PhD in Environmental Engineering (Newcastle, UK) and attended the Advanced Management Program (AMP) at the Harvard Business School. He is a Fellow at the Swedish Royal Physiographic Society in Lund (Sweden), Fellow at the Science Academy (Malaysia) and Fellow at the Institute of Chemical Engineering (UK).

He is also registered as a Professional Engineer (Malaysia), Chartered Engineer (UK), Chartered Scientist (UK), Chartered Water and Environmental Manager (UK). He was also a Visiting Professor at MIT (the United States), Imperial College London (UK), and Kyoto and Tokyo University Japan. He was born in Kampung Inas, Johol Negeri Sembilan in 1965.

Daud Vicary Abdullah is the President and Chief Executive Officer of INCEIF, The Global University of Islamic Finance. He has been in the finance and consulting industry for almost 40 years, with significant experience in Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East.

Since 2002, he has focused exclusively on Islamic finance where he has contributed to a number of books on the subject and has co-authored a book on Islamic finance entitled “Islamic Finance: Why it makes sense.” He is also a frequent speaker and commentator on matters relating to Islamic finance. He is a Chartered Islamic Finance Professional (CIFP), a Distinguished Fellow of the Islamic Banking and Finance Institute of Malaysia (IBFIM) and a former board member (2003 – 2007) of the Accounting and Auditing Organisation for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI).

Prior to INCEIF, he was the Global Islamic Finance Leader with Deloitte. He was also previously the Acting CEO of Asian Finance Bank, an Islamic bank based in Malaysia, and the Managing Director of Hong Leong Islamic Bank.

Hany El Konayyesi is currently Head Of News Output at Al Jazeera English TV channel. He has over 20 years’ experience working in broadcasting in the Middle East region, UK, USA and beyond.

Prior to joining Al Jazeera English in 2010, Hany was the News Strand Editor for BBC Arabic TV (World Service) in London. Previous roles have included Senior News Editor for APTN as well as being on the news frontline as a correspondent and producer for BBC, MBC, Abu Dhabi TV News and Voice of America.

As Head Of News Output for Al Jazeera English, Hany has been at the heart of editorial and management decision-making during top international stories such as the Arab Spring, and the War in Gaza to name but two.

Hany holds a PhD in Mass Communications and an MA in Television Journalism from the American University in Cairo and a postgraduate diploma in media studies from the UK. He has been involved in training and developing students of journalism and contributed to editing journalism guidelines for the BBC and Al Jazeera English.

DR IMRAN KAUSAR
Founder,
Halal Food Festival,
United Kingdom

Dr Imran Kausar is the founder of Halal Food Festival. Halal Food Festival is a new consumer food concept that brings celebrity chefs, high-end restaurants, large and small producers and consumers together in festival like atmosphere to promote and enjoy Halal food. The event will highlight the size and scope of the Halal marketplace and the evolving customers base who have unmet needs. HFF was launched in London, in September 2013 and is seeking partners to help spread across to the USA, Australia, Malaysia and mainland Europe.

Imran is Scottish born and educated, and currently lives in London. He trained in medicine and specialised in anaesthesia and intensive care medicine.

In the early 2000’s, Imran worked in Investment Banking before returning to clinical practice. He left clinical practice again to work in late stage drug development and drug commercialisation in Europe, where he led a European team for a major global pharmaceutical company.

His desire to promote the Halal marketplace started as a young student, when his ambition was to see premium Halal products available in mainstream stores. That is why he started the Halal Food Festival.

DR MASSOUD JANEKEH
Director,
Head of Islamic Capital Markets,
Bank of London and Middle East Plc,
United Kingdom

Massoud joined BLME in April 2007. Massoud has many years of experience gained across a number of industries, in advisory and financial service businesses. He spent 10 years managing investments for global products at ICI/Zeneca, before moving to strategy consultancy with AT Kearney and Integrum. Massoud then moved to financial services when he joined BDIC as a corporate finance advisor and later on involved in structured debt with European American Capital.

Dr Omar Saleh is a medical doctor with more than 15 years experience in health emergencies response, particularly in conflict and disaster zones. After graduating in Medicine and General Surgery at Cairo University, he became a specialist in emergency surgery at Suez Canal University, where he obtained his Master of Science and Doctoral degrees. In 2007, he became member of the Royal College of Surgeons of London.

After working as a surgeon and emergency surgical lecturer at Suez Canal University, he has been operating under the Auspices of the World Health Organization in Somalia as Emergency Health Coordinator since 2007. In 2011, when the country was hit by the worst drought in 60 years, affecting almost 4 million people, Dr Omar was one of the first humanitarian workers to be on-the-ground, to provide people with timely life-saving health assistance.

In his resolute way, Dr Omar organised the health emergency response to the famine, led the establishment of mobile clinics and makeshift hospitals in crisis affected areas, and coordinated hospitals’ provision of essential drugs, medical supplies and equipment, desperately needed to serve a population of almost 1 million people.

Despite the on going conflict, he remained on the battleground at Banadir Hospital to oversee the response to non-communicable diseases and train the medical staff in comprehensive emergency obstetric surgery and trauma surgery. Since 2012, as the conflict subsided, he focused on secondary health care. He established the emergency response strategy to make shift hospitals and renovated eight hospitals in south central Somalia.

Sayd Farook manages the Islamic finance product proposition at Thomson Reuters across a number of asset classes and content sets.

Sayd Farook was born in Libya, spent his childhood and early teens in Bangladesh and then migrated to Australia. He has a multicultural family that comprises of an American brother in law (and nephews), Russian sister in law (and nephews) and he is himself married to an Australian with Lebanese heritage.

Against all odds and harsh personal circumstances, Sayd Farook worked three jobs to complete his university degrees in Law and Business with First Class honours. He did a stint at HSBC and then went on to complete his PhD in financial economics (specifically in Islamic banking) from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS).

Sayd Farook has worked in diverse roles from lecturing in UTS and ACU, to consulting for Islamic Finance Advisory services (Dar Al Istithmar, a former subsidiary of Deutsche Bank and Oxford Islamic Finance) to Business development and research at the Bahrain Institute of Banking and Finance.

Sayd Farook consults and advises standard setters such as AAOIFI on their standards and professional education and is on the editorial advisory board for two prominent blind peer reviewed academic journals. He also likes to air his opinions/analysis and discuss research in both professional and academic conference rounds such as Harvard, Oxford and the World Islamic Banking forums.

DR SMISHA AGARWAL
Chief Executive Officer,
Global Health Bridge

Dr Smisha Agarwal is the CEO of Global Health Bridge (GHB), a non-profit dedicated to using mobile tools to improve healthcare around the world, and a faculty at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. In her capacity at GHB and as a technical expert on monitoring and evaluation, her work has been largely focused on the design and evaluation of mobile health (mHealth) interventions for strengthening health systems in developing countries. Most recently, she has consulted with the World Health Organization’s Technical Advisory Group on mHealth to develop a framework for evidence generation for scaling up of mHealth interventions for maternal and child health.

Previously, Dr Agarwal was a Carl E. Taylor Memorial Fellow and worked at the Comprehensive Rural Health Project (CRHP), Jamkhed, India to develop an effective monitoring system for long term evaluation of community-based integrative health projects focused on communicable and non-communicable diseases. Dr Agarwal has worked with Jhpeigo and the World Health Organization (WHO) Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR) on health systems research in several Asian and African countries. She currently writes for Huffington Post’s Global Motherhood section. She has an MPH degree from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and an MBA from the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School.

Dr Yousef Shahin is a medical doctor with more than 8 years experience in disease prevention and control programme. After graduating in Medicine and General Surgery at Zaprozyha Medical University in the Former USSR, he joined Jordan University of Science and Technology where he obtained his Master degree in Public Health in 1995. Since 2005, he is at senior position in United Nations and Relief Agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA), manager of communicable and non-communicable diseases programme.

After working as a private Doctor in a clinic and lecturer at Amman medical training centre, he joined UNRWA in 1992 as Medical Officer in charge of health centers till 2005, when he was promoted to a senior position at UNRWA headquarters. Dr Shahin is responsible for the development, monitoring and evaluation of the UNRWA’s progrmme for disease prevention and control by preparing technical instructions, clinical guidelines, periodic assessment of activities and supervision on the various components of the Agency’s Disease Prevention and Control Programme (communicable and non-communicable diseases)

Dr Shahin joined World Health Organization/Eastern Mediterranean Region from July-December 2011 as Technical Officer on Non-communicable Diseases. He has several publications in medical journals including the Lancet on different health topics mainly diabetes care among Palestine Refugees.y.shahin2@unrwa.org Mobile 00962 776760100

Duncan Clark is Chairman of BDA China (www.bda.com), a consultancy he founded in Beijing in 1994 after four years as an investment banker with Morgan Stanley in London and Hong Kong. Over the past 19 years, Duncan has guided BDA to become the leading investment advisory firm in China specialized in China's technology, Internet and e-commerce sectors.

An angel investor in mobile game app developer Happy Latte (www.happylatte.com) and digital content metrics company App Annie (www.appannie.com) Duncan has also served on the Advisory Board of Chinese Internet company Netease.com (Nasdaq: NTES) and serves on the Advisory Board of the Digital Communication Fund of Geneva-based bank Pictet & Cie.

A UK citizen, Duncan was raised in England, the United States and France. A graduate of the London School of Economics & Political Science, Duncan is a Senior Advisor to the ‘China 2.0' initiative at the Stanford Graduate School of Business’s SPRIE program,where he was invited as a Visiting Scholar in 2010 and 2011.

Duncan is partner in a Beijing-based film production company CIB Productions and Executive Producer of two China-themed television documentaries including ‘My Beijing Birthday’.

Duncan was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2013 New Year Honours for services to British commercial interests in China.

EBRAHIM PATEL
Chairman,
WIEF Young Leaders Network,
WIEF Foundation

Ebrahim Patel is the CEO of Magellan Investment Management and the Managing Director of TransAfrix Holdings Ltd based in South Africa. He is the Chairman of the KZN Business Chambers Council, Chairman of the Chamber International Trade Committee, a member of the Provincial Government Economic Council and a member of the International Relations sub-Committee of the Durban City Council.

He is the founder of the Minara Chamber of Commerce and served as its National President from 2000 until 2009. In 1999 he was elected the first non-white President of the South African Facilities Management Association.

Ebrahim serves on a number of boards and foundations and is passionate about entrepreneurship and social empowerment.

He is a member of the International Advisory Panel of the World Islamic Economic Forum and the Chairman of the WIEF Young Leaders Network.

ENVER CEBI
General Manager,
Crescent Tours,
United Kingdom

Enver Cebi is the General Manager and co-founder of CrescentTours.com.

He has diploma in Business Administration with honours. He completed his Executive MBA from Birmingham City University in Strategic Management. Enver’s academic research works were in Innovation Management subject with focus on Halal Holidays business.

Enver has over 10 years of management experience in Travel and Tourism sector. For several years, he worked in management positions in established UK-based mainstream tour operators before he decided to found Crescent Tours.

In 2009, he and a group of visionary Muslims with senior management experience from travel and top FTSE blue-chip companies came together to realise the Crescent Tours vision - Holidays with an Islamic ethos. Since then Crescent Tours has established a reputation as the world's leading independent Halal Tourism specialist, offering online booking facility for halal leisure holidays and Islamic heritage tours. Crescent Tours is a global brand with a state-of-art information website and sophisticated online booking engine, which provides its customers full-unbiased information and allows booking their dream halal holidays online, fully tailored to their individual needs.

Enver lives in Solihull, United Kingdom. He can be contacted at Enver@Crescent Tours.com.

Fazal is the Founder & CEO of Crescent Rating, which set up the world’s first travel portal dedicated to the Halal conscious travellers and launched its’ Rating (Crescent Rating) system to rate travel and tourism services for their Halal friendliness.

Prior to this, he was with Alcatel-Lucent where he held senior management roles based in Europe and Asia. During this period, he also served as a member of the Board of Directors of Alcatel-Fujitsu Joint venture for 3G technology and was a member of Alcatel University Asia Pacific International Branch Advisory Board. A pioneer in the development of the “Halal Friendly Travel” sector, he has spoken at many international conferences and has been quoted and interviewed extensively in the media worldwide. He also has conducted exclusive workshops for the travel industry players in a number of countries, on how to cater to the growing segment of Muslim travellers. Fazal completed the Executive Program from Stanford University & National University of Singapore, Strategic Leadership Development Program from Ashridge Management School and International Management in Telecoms Industry from London Business School. He has an International Masters in Management from Management School of Lyon & Alcatel University, in addition to the Master’s Degree in Computer Applications and Bachelor’s Degree in Telecommunication Engineering from the Beijing University of Post and Telecommunications. Fazal also has a Diploma in Islamic Banking and Finance from the International Islamic University of Malaysia (IIUM).

GILLIAN WALMSLEY
Head of Fixed Income Products,
London Stock Exchange,
United Kingdom

Gillian Walmsley is Head of Fixed Income at the London Stock Exchange and covers the Group's London markets for Fixed Income & Islamic Finance in addition to ETFs & Securitised Derivatives.

Before joining the Exchange in 2008, Gillian was part of the Interest Rate product development team at Liffe, the derivatives arm of NYSE Euronext, where she worked on the design and launch of various short-term interest rate, bond index and government bond futures and options contracts and on the structuring of exchange credit derivatives.

Previously, she was part of the Equity Derivatives team and worked on the launch of stock futures, the development of the UK equity options market and the introduction of flexible equity and index contracts. Gillian began her career in the City on the Liffe trading floor as an Exchange Official overseeing open-outcry trading activity in the fixed income option pits.

Goris Mustaqim was born in Indonesia. He graduated from Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) in 2006, majoring in Civil Engineering. He was the creator and co-founder of ITB Entrepreneurship Challenge (IEC) which has produced thousands student entrepreneurs. His achievements:-

1) In 2007, Goris founded PT Resultan Nusantara with his colleagues, an IT Company which delivers automation solutions using RFID.

2) He was nominated by the Business Week Magazine as one of Asia’s Best Young Entrepreneurs in 2009.

3) President and founder of ASGAR MUDA Foundation, a youth leading social enterprise concerns on Youh Education, Community. President and founder of ASGAR MUDA Foundation, a youth leading social enterprise concerns on Youth Education and Community.

4) British Council’s Community Entrepreneur in 2009 for helping young people turn business ideas into workable plans, through Asgar Muda’s incubator.

5) XL Indonesia Berprestasi 2009, Gatra Magazine People of the Year in 2010.

6) Gatra Magazine People of the Year in 2010.

7) Service Award on Global Peace Festival Convention in Seoul 2011.

8) His speech was attended by President Obama during the Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship in Washington, D.C. in April 2010, when he served as one of the youngest panelists on “Catalyzing Youth Entrepreneurship” session.

9) Since 2012, Goris has been professionally consulting Bank Mandiri, Indonesia’s largest public bank to design and hold a Social Entrepreneurship competition, “Mandiri Bersama Mandiri”, to help young people obtain funds and mentorship to develop their social enterprise ideas.

H.E. Abdulla Mohammed Saleh was appointed Governor of the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) in July 2011 by a Royal Decree issued by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Prime Minister and Vice-President, and Ruler of Dubai. With over 40 years of experience in the financial services sector, H.E Saleh, a former advisor on financial matters to the Late Ruler of Dubai, H.H. Sheikh Rashid Bin Saeed Al Maktoum held numerous key positions in several leading organisations.

Mr Saleh was Chairman of the DFSA (Dubai Financial Service Authority) from June 2007 to August 2011, having served as a Director of the DFSA since 2004.

Mr Saleh is a former Vice Chairman of Emirates NBD Bank PJSC, the largest banking entity in the Middle East. Emirates NBD Bank PJSC was formed by the merger of National Bank of Dubai (NBD) and Emirates Bank International (EBI). Mr Saleh was one of NBD’s founders in 1963, the Managing Director from 1982 until January 2004, and Chairman from 2005 until the merger with EBI.

Mr Saleh served as an Arbitrator on the Paris-based High Board of the Euro-Arab Arbitration Centre, from 1988 to 2000. He has been a Member of the Board of Qatar Fuel Additives Company since 1990 and has been Chairman of International Octane Limited since 1990. He is the Deputy Chairman and major shareholder of Dubai Transport Company LLC (DUTCO), the holding company of the DUTCO Group of Companies. He has been Chairman of MARSH INSCO (insurance brokers) since 1976. He is a Director of K S Energy Limited.

He was educated in Sharjah and London and also attended the Institute of Bankers after completing his academic studies.

Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz was appointed Governor of Bank Negara Malaysia (The Central Bank of Malaysia) in May 2000. As the Governor, she has a key role in monetary policy formulation and implementation, and in ensuring the stability of the Malaysian financial system. In addition, she has overseen the successful transformation of the Malaysian financial system into one of the most developed and resilient financial systems amongst the emerging economies. In particular, she has been involved in leading the development of the Financial Sector Blueprint, which charts the direction of Malaysia’s financial sector development over the next 10 years; spearheading the development of Islamic finance, domestically and globally; and participating in efforts to enhance the contribution of SMEs to the Malaysian economy. Dr Zeti is also actively involved in shaping the future of financial cooperation in the Asian region, and has been an important voice for the emerging economies in the international financial fora.

To strengthen regional integration, Dr Zeti chaired the Executives' Meeting of East Asia-Pacific Central Banks (EMEAP) Taskforce on “Regional Cooperation among Central Banks in Asia” to draw up the blueprint for future financial cooperation in the region. She was one of the first co-chairs of the Financial Stability Board's Regional Consultative Group for Asia, together with the Bank of Korea. Dr Zeti is a member of the South East Asian Central Banks (SEACEN) Board of Governors and the Chairman of the SEACEN Board of Directors. She is also a member of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Central Bank Governance Group since 2001, and is one of the founding members of the BIS Asian Consultative Council.

In the area of Islamic finance, she has been actively involved in its development both in the domestic and international arena. Dr Zeti chaired the Steering Committee for the establishment of the Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB) and served as the IFSB Council Chairman for the 2007 term. She was also the Chairman of the international taskforce on ‘Islamic Finance and Global Financial Stability’ and the taskforce on Liquidity Management to develop a mechanism to facilitate cross border liquidity management. Dr Zeti is currently the Chairperson of the International Islamic Liquidity Management Corporation Board Executive Committee and had also served as the Chairperson of the IILM’s Governing Board until 2011. Dr Zeti played a leading role to develop Malaysia as a centre for the origination, distribution and trading of Sukuks under the Malaysia International Islamic Financial Centre (MIFC) initiative. In 2002, Dr Zeti led a team that launched the Malaysian global Islamic Sukuk, the world’s first Islamic Sukuk to be issued by a sovereign country.

Dr Zeti had served as a member of the United Nations General Assembly Commission of Experts on Reform of the International Monetary and Financial System, a high-level task force established to examine possible reform of the global financial system.

Dr Zeti received her Bachelor of Economics (Honors) from the University of Malaya and her PhD from the University of Pennsylvania.

H.E. Hamood Sangour Al- Zadjali was appointed by Royal Decree as Executive President of the Central Bank of Oman (CBO) in June 1991. He continues to serve as Executive President of CBO since then. H.E. Al- Zadjali is a renowned expert on financial and economic policy making in the GCC region. While serving as Executive President of CBO, he is widely recognised for nurturing and steering the banking sector in Oman into a stable, sound and resilient financial system, by developing not only the banking sector but also deepening and widening other segments of the financial markets. He continues to serve in the Boards of several financial institutions.

H.E. Al-Zadjali started his banking career with HSBC Bank in 1969. Before taking over as Executive President of CBO, he held executive positions in various capacities in the financial sector including CBO. Born in 1947, H.E. Al-Zadjali holds a Management degree from Boston University’s School of Management, USA.

Sanusi Lamido Sanusi (CON) was born in Kano Northern Nigeria, on July 31, 1961. He graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the Ahmadu Bello University in 1981, and pursued a Masters Degree programme in Development Economics and came out with a Distinction. He taught Economics at the Ahmadu Bello University between 1983 and 1985, and then embarked on a banking career, starting at Icon Limited, Merchant Bankers, where, over a period of seven years, he held a variety of roles spanning Corporate Finance, Treasury Services, Credit and Marketing. He left the banking industry in 1991 as Area Manager (Kano) to pursue further education, and in 1997, he graduated with a First Class Degree in Sharia and Islamic Studies from the International University of Africa, Khartoum, Sudan, where he also studied Arabic.

Sanusi returned to banking in 1997, and by September 2005, he was recruited by First Bank of Nigeria Plc and appointed to the position of Executive Director, Risk & Management Control. In January 2009, he was appointed to the position of Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of First Bank, and after six months he was appointed as the 10th Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in June 2009.

Sanusi was appointed Governor in the middle of a global financial crisis with the Banking system on the verge of collapse due to large exposure to the stock market in the form of bubble capital and excessive margin lending by some banks, as well as concentration of lending to other areas like petroleum marketing. Under his leadership, the Central Bank of Nigeria moved swiftly and boldly to implement far-reaching reforms in the Banking Industry aimed at addressing the root causes of the crises in poor corporate governance and risk management practices, management fraud, insider abuses and weak regulation supervision and enforcement. An audit exercise revealed that eight out of the twenty-four deposit money banks in the country were in a grave situation leading to the removal of the Management by the CBN and injection of bail-out funds to stabilise the institution.

Mallam Sanusi’s tough, decisive and transparent actions have earned him greater and wider recognition, including a special invitation in November 2010, by the United Sates Congressional Sub-Committee on International Monetary Policy and Trade, to give testimony at a congressional hearing titled, “The Global Financial Crisis and Financial Reforms in Nigeria”.

Mallam Sanusi was awarded several honours and awards including the National Honour of Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON) by His Excellency, President Goodluck Jonathan on July 22, 2010 and several honourary doctorate degrees by universities in Nigeria. He has twice been named Central Bank Governor of the Year for Sub-Saharan Africa by Emerging Markets and Global/African Central Bank Governor of the Year 2011 by the Banker Magazine as well as the 2013 African Central Bank Governor by IC Publications Group in collaboration with Business in Africa Event.

As descendant of the Kano royal family, he was conferred the prestigious royal title of the Dan Majen Kano by His Highness Alh. Ado Bayero, the Emir of Kano on 8 June 2012.

Mallam Sanusi, a prolific writer, has written and presented numerous papers at National and International conferences and seminars bordering on banking, politics, religion and society. Many of his papers have been published in academic/professional journals, books and newspapers around the world.

H.E. SULTAN BIN NASSER AL SUWAIDI
Governor,
Central Bank of the UAE

Mr Sultan Bin Nasser Al Suwaidi is a UAE national, born in Abu Dhabi in 1953. He graduated with a B.S. degree in Business Administration and Finance, and started his career at Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) in 1978, at the Finance and Administration Department. At ADIA, part of Mr Al Suwaidi’s job was to supervise the Cash Management Division (the dealing room) and the Accounting Division. Mr Al Suwaidi also, represented ADIA on Boards of many banks and financial institutions, attended many specialised seminars and workshops, and received certificates.

In 1982, Mr Al Suwaidi moved to Abu Dhabi Investment Company (ADIC), where he served as General manager of the Company. His mandate was to restructure the Company and stream-line its operations.

In early 1984, Mr Al Suwaidi was nominated for the position of General manager of Gulf International Bank (Bahrain), and his nomination was accepted by the 7 Gulf countries shareholders. At GIB Mr Al Suwaidi redirected the strategy of the Bank towards doing more business within the region.

In late 1985, Mr Al Suwaidi was offered the position of Managing Director and CEO of Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, a bank which resulted from merging three local banks, that ran into financial difficulties. The mandate of Mr Al Suwaidi was to take steps to implement the merger, structure the new bank’s business plan and run its day-to-day affairs. The bank was able to reduce cost, increase revenue, take sufficient provisions and make a modest profit in the first year after the merger.

At the end of 1991, Mr Al Suwaidi was nominated for the position of Governor of Central bank of the UAE, and his nomination was successful. He joined Central bank of the UAE as Governor on 18th Dec. 1991. At the Central bank Mr Al Suwaidi was able to introduce or modernise many banking regulations. He also, emphasized the roles of Banking Supervision /Examination and Information Technology (IT). As a result, a well staffed and a strong Banking Supervision/ Examination Department and an Innovative IT Division have emerged. In 1994 Mr Al Suwaidi worked on establishing the UAESwitch which started operations in 1996 and was able to connect all bank ATMs in the UAE. He, also, supported the establishment of an automated cheque Clearing System for UAE banks.

At the moment, the Central Bank is in the process of implementing many new initiatives such as, the Image Cheque Clearing System, the Mobile Phone Payment System and Basil II, and Mr Al Suwaidi is very instrumental in pushing these initiatives forward.

In 2006, Mr Al Suwaidi received his award as The Central Bank Governor of the year for the Middle East from Emerging Markets Publication, the awarding ceremony was held during the IMF/WB meetings in Singapore.

Hasan AlJabri has been a major player in investment banking and corporate finance for over 27 years, holding leading positions in two of Mena region’s most influential financial institutions; NCB Group and SAMBA. His achievements have driven these institutions to become leaders in corporate finance, corporate banking and investment management. He leads SEDCO Capital that manages and advises on investments both locally and internationally in different asset classes including private equity, public equity and global real-estate, whilst ensuring that all these investments comply with the challenging Shari’a guidelines and spear heading the way into ethical investment solutions.

Hasan is a founding partner in several successful businesses, in mortgage finance (Dar Al Tamleek, the leading mortgage finance house in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia), health care (MPS), Microfinance (Ibdaa Bank), IT (ICC) and real estate development (Diyar Al Khayyal). He also sits on the boards of a diverse group of industries including FMCG, building materials, catering, investment banking and finance.

Hassan’s continuous passion has been focused on financial dignity for the less privileged; he strongly believes that each individual must be given the opportunity to thrive and become self-sustainable. Accordingly, he worked on founding several organisations that opened doors to people to thrive, like a microfinance bank in Syria and an angel investment fund in KSA.

Hasan currently chairs the World’s Presidents Organization Chapter in Saudi and was previously the Chairman of the YPO for the same chapter and a founding board member of the Gulf SOL.

He is a BSC graduate of the American University of Beirut and an Executive Management Program graduate of Columbia University.

HAZEM GALAL
Partner,
State & Local Government Sector,
PricewaterhouseCoopers,
State of Qatar

Hazem Galal is a PwC Partner based in the Middle East and the global leader for PwC’s Cities and Local Government Sector. With 25 years of consulting experience, Hazem has expertise in smart cities and local government strategy formulation, transformation programs and reform. He led several city projects in the Middle East, Latin America, Asia, the United States and Europe, which gives him an edge of expertise in both developed and developing countries conditions. Since 2007, Hazem has been leading PwC’s Thought Leadership around the world for cities including “Cities of Opportunity” and “Making it Happen”.

Hazem is a frequent speaker at numerous global conferences and panels on cities and innovation organized by the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the United Nations and other international bodies, as well as local and national governments in developed and developing countries, including the BRICS.

Hazem has an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley and a BSC in Computer Engineering (Summa Cum Laude). He speaks fluent English, Arabic and Portuguese.

Helena joined Newton in 1994 as a fixed income fund manager and was appointed CEO in 2001. During her time running Newton’s bond funds, she was twice-winner of Investment Week’s Global Bond Fund Manager of the year.

Helena involved in many aspects of the UK fund management industry and was named the Financial News ‘Most Influential Woman in European Asset Management’ in 2010. She was the first female director of the UK’s Investment Management Association, serving from 2005 till 2012. She represents the investment industry on the FCA’s Practitioner Panel, a statutory body providing input to the regulators from practitioners’ perspectives.

In 2010, Helena founded the 30% Club, a cross-business initiative aimed at achieving 30% women on UK corporate boards by 2015 through voluntary, business-led change. She was appointed CBE in the 2012 New Year’s Honours list.

Helena is a member of the University of Cambridge Endowment Investment Board. She is also chairman of the Eve Appeal (a charity funding research into gynaecological cancers), the Royal Academy’s Corporate Board and Opportunity Now, Business in the Community’s gender diversity campaign.

A Cambridge philosophy graduate, she began her career as a global bond analyst with Schroders in New York. She was recently awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Cranfield University in recognition of her contribution to the asset management industry and for her leadership through the work of the 30% Club.

Helena is married with nine children.

IQBAL NOOR ALI
Senior Advisor,
Aga Khan Development Network,
United States of America

Iqbal Noor Ali has been with the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) for over 30 years. In 1979, he joined an economic development unit of the AKDN as a Project Officer for a programme that enabled over 800 immigrant families acquire or establish small businesses. As the CEO of Aga Khan Foundation USA from 1984 to 2009, he helped set up the AKDN’s presence in the United States through engagement with government and private sector donors and development institutions, and established a nation-wide volunteer network to raise public awareness and funds.

In 2010, he was promoted to Senior Advisor in the AKDN to facilitate strategic partnerships and international representation on behalf of all 10 AKDN agencies. He has served on the Boards and Committees of various philanthropic and development organisations. A U.S. citizen, Iqbal received his formal education in Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Canada, and resides in Washington, D.C.

Founded and guided by His Highness the Aga Khan, the AKDN is a group of development agencies that work in health, education, architecture, culture, microfinance, rural development, disaster prevention and mitigation, the environment, the promotion of private-sector enterprise and the revitalisation of historic cities. The AKDN works in over 30 countries, mainly in South and Central Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. It employs approximately 80,000 people, the majority of whom are based in developing countries. The AKDN disburses approximately USD600 million annually for non-profit activities.

More information about AKDN is available on its website: www.akdn.org.

Jacqueline started her career at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP. She is the founder and Managing Partner of Hoja Law Group, a boutique law firm in New York and Kigali, Rwanda, advising on commercial, political, and intellectual property law for companies doing business in Africa, as well as for African governments. She served as an advisor to the Director General of the World Trade Organization on trade policy, development issues and private sector development for African countries and other Least-developed Countries (and continues to advise on the WTO-OECD Aid for Trade 4th Global Review) as well as an advisor to the Rwandan Minister of Justice on investment, trade and infrastructure. Jacqueline has also been an Adjunct Professor of Law at universities in the U.S. and Rwanda.

Jacqueline is a thought leader, speaker and writer on African affairs. She is a Young Global Leader 2011 (World Economic Forum), an Archbishop Desmond Tutu fellow 2011 (African Leadership Institute), and a 2012 Mo Ibrahim Foundation Leadership fellow. She is a graduate of the University of Melbourne Law School and Davidson College. She has completed executive education at the Said Business School, Oxford University and the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.

JEFF LYNN
Chief Executive Officer,
Seedrs,
United Kingdom

Jeff Lynn is CEO and co-founder of Seedrs, Europe’s fastest-growing online platform for investing in start-ups. Seedrs makes it possible for investors to invest between £10 and £150,000 in start-ups they choose through a simple, online process, and it lets start-ups raise up to £150,000 in equity capital seamlessly from friends, family and independent investors. Seedrs was the first equity crowd funding platform in the world to obtain regulatory approval.

Jeff is a qualified lawyer with extensive experience in the worlds of corporate transactions and early-stage businesses. He began his career practicing corporate law with Sullivan & Cromwell LLP in New York and London, and he later served as co-chairman of the investment committee of a UK seed investment fund. He also currently serves as Non-Executive Director of Companies House and founding Chairman of The Coalition for a Digital Economy (Coadec). Jeff holds an MBA and a BCL (advanced law degree) from the University of Oxford, a JD from the University of Virginia and a BA from the University of Pennsylvania.

JESSE HONSA
Co-Founder,
Open Urban,
Republic of Turkey

Jesse Honsa is an architect in Istanbul, Turkey. He is co-founder of OpenUrban, a crowd-sourced map and database to share information and ideas on urban development. The website was launched and exhibited at The 2012 Istanbul Design Biennial, and took part in The New Museum's Ideas City Festival in New York. He has also presented OpenUrban at TEDxReset and Dubai One's Peeta Planet TV show.

Jesse has worked for architecture firms in Zürich, New York City, and Istanbul, where he has won several first prize competitions for urban masterplans. He is the recipient of the Zagreb Society of Architects' 2011 Urban Borders prize.

Writing about intersections between architecture, politics and culture, his essays are featured online in such venues as HyperAllergic, Arkitera, and SanatAtak. In 2010, he was invited to the Architecture Foundation London's Faith In The City: The Mosque in the Contemporary Urban West symposium, speaking with regards to the Swiss ban on minaret construction.

Jesse graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in 2008 with Bachelor of Architecture(hons) and Bachelor of Fine Arts(hons) degrees. He studied at the Edinburgh College of Art, and was the recipient of a RISD travel grant to Indonesia and Malaysia in 2008. He was born outside of Boston, USA in 1984.

Khalid A. Alireza is internationally recognised as one of Saudi Arabia’s most prominent and forward-looking businessmen. As a descendant of one of the oldest trading houses in the Middle East, he founded his first Company, Xenel Industries Limited, in 1973, which soon became one of Saudi Arabia’s leading industrial groups. He is Vice-Chairman of Xenel Industries Limited and is Chairman of the Board of several large Public Traded industrial companies in The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Xenel is now comprised of more than fifty companies operating in four continents, and has many international “firsts” to its name. Xenel has built companies and fostered expertise bringing economic growth and development to the many places in which it invests and is internationally connected to many large Corporations throughout the world. Xenel has built expertise in energy, diversified industries, construction, infrastructure development, petrochemical complexes, healthcare, industrial services, IT, logistics, real estate and global investment.

MEMBER: Ex-Member of the Board of Trustees of UC Berkeley, World Economic Forum Council, WEF International Business Council; Trustee and Chairman of the Finance Committee of Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, Oxford University; US –Saudi Arabian Business Council, Chairman of Al Falah Schools, Saudi Arabia and other prestigious organizations devoted to education and world harmony.

HONORARY AWARDS: Award of Commendatore (C.O.M.R.I.) Commander of Italian Order of Chivalry by decree of President of Italy in the Italian Order of Merit

LAUREN TAYLOR
Presenter,
Aljazeera English,
United Kingdom

Lauren Taylor is a London based presenter for Aljazeera. She's been one of the main anchors since the launch of the English channel in 2006, spending three years in Doha. She has also presented special programmes from the field, including from Yemen, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Iraq and South Sudan. She's anchored Aljazeera's coverage of a number of big stories including the Gaza conflict of 2008, Norway mass killings, Japanese Tsunami and Arab Spring uprisings.

Lauren joined Aljazeera from ITV News, with extensive television journalism experience as a correspondent and presenter. She was formerly business correspondent for ITV News, and spent four years as a political correspondent. She reported on the UK 2001 and 2005 General Elections and the US 2000 and 2004 Presidential Elections. She covered a range of big stories, including the July 7 bombings, the death of Princess Diana, ETA violence in Spain, and the IRA bombings of Manchester and London Docklands.

She is a graduate of Oxford University's St John's College, and has a postgraduate journalism diploma from City University in London.

Rozario was Group Managing Director of Country Heights Holdings Berhad, a Bursa Malaysia listed property group, before stepping down to join AIM in July 2011. He graduated with a BSc in Economics from the London School of Economics and is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

Rozario has considerable practical experience in general management and corporate finance. He had worked with KPMG Peat Marwick, London where he qualified as a Chartered Accountant. In 1991, he joined the internal consulting division of the Paris headquarters of Schlumberger Limited, a global oilfield services group. His last position with Schlumberger Group was as Controller of the East Asia Division. In 1997, he was attached to Sunway Group, holding various senior positions. He was Group Executive Director of Sunway Holdings Berhad prior to joining Country Heights in 2008.

In his current position as Chief Executive Officer of the National Innovation Agency (Agensi Inovasi Malaysia – a government statutory body chaired by the Prime Minister of Malaysia), he is charged with driving the agency to implement the National Innovation Strategy for the nation.

Since 2006, Michelle has played a leading role in establishing Kiva’s portfolio of impact first lending organisations across the globe. She has sourced and vetted financial institutions including social banks, cooperatives, and non-profit lending institutions in over 40 countries across Africa, America and Asia. Having built a strong base of knowledge in microfinance and lending best practices, in 2011 Michelle transitioned to a role as the head of Kiva’s Strategic Initiatives group, a team focused on expanding Kiva’s portfolio to include social enterprises, schools and non-profit organisations solving vital problems in the areas of clean energy, higher education, water & sanitation, innovative agriculture and health.

Prior to Kiva, Michelle founded and ran a foundation in Costa Rica that works to promote English literacy and environmental education. She has also worked at Accion International, and on development projects throughout Latin America. Michelle graduated magna cum laude from Boston University with a degree in International Relations and Economics. She speaks Spanish, English, French, and is working on her Portuguese and Arabic. She is 2012 Rainer Arnold fellow, and serves on the advisory board of a handful of non-profit organisations in her native San Francisco.

Mohamed Geraldez is an entrepreneur, motivational speaker and investor in a few companies in different industries like the first and largest Halal non-silk necktie company in the world www.JaanJ.com, and www.GeorgeCharlesAndSons.com - men’s custom suit maker in New York City. He invests in digital technology with startups like www.TheTechBlock.com, a curator of tech-related content, and is a strategic adviser to www.Pivotshare.com, a digital media distribution and monetization startup. Mohamed serves as an advisory board member to several entities like the American Muslim Consumer Conference group, which hosts a yearly gathering that connects leading American corporations with Muslim entrepreneurs, companies and investors.

Mohamed was recently tapped to be the first Executive Director for Co-Founder, Dr Sherman Jackson’s ALIM Program where he hopes to transform it from a traditional non-profit to a trailblazing, hybrid not-for-profit.

Mohamed converted to Islam during his junior year in college. Upon graduating, he went overseas to study the Islamic sciences for nearly four years in Syria, Morocco and Mauritania. After studying abroad, he returned to the USA to obtain his MBA.

Mohamed was asked to present his unique personal story in the book by White Cloud Publications "All-American: 45 American Men on Being Muslim."

Muzaffar Hisham is the Chief Executive Officer of Maybank Islamic and Head of the Maybank Group Islamic Banking Business. He is responsible in managing and setting the various key strategies for Group’s overall Islamic Banking business. He is also the Chairman of the Standards Committee, Association of Islamic Banking Institutions Malaysia (AIBIM).

Muzaffar has collectively 18 years of experience in the banking and financial services. Formerly, he was the Deputy Chief Executive Officer of CIMB Islamic Bank and Director sitting on the Board of CIMB Insurance Brokers. He also served in various senior capacities with CIMB Investment Bank and HSBC Amanah. Muzaffar started his career with Asian International Merchant Bankers in the Corporate Banking Division. He later joined Amanah Merchant Bank Berhad and Amanah Short Deposits Berhad where he was involved in corporate debt and financing businesses from debt syndication to advising on private debt securities. He was also involved in various debt and corporate restructuring exercises during the 1997/1998 Asian financial crisis.

In recognition of Muzaffar Hisham’s contribution to growing and developing Islamic Finance globally, he was awarded with the 2013 "Islamic Banker of the Year" award by The Asset Triple A.

Muzaffar Hisham holds a Bachelors of Science in Economics and Accounting from the University of Bristol, United Kingdom.

Nedim Kaya graduated form Istanbul University Law Faculty, finalising his Ph.D work in International law. He has been leader of some well-known International NGO’s and currently Executive Board Member of World Family Organization (WFO) also Executive Board Member of the Union of the NGO's of the Muslim World (UNIW). He has worked on UN and OIC projects in management and coordinator level.

Nedim Kaya has been the founder and CEO of “Digital Islam”, “NN Digital- one of the first e-book creation company in the world” and “Cinemu- First safe Movie Guide based on Islamic Values” and is currently working as deputy CEO of the Salamworld- First Global Muslim Social Media initiative.

Neil Denari is the principal of NMDA, Neil M. Denari Architects Inc., and a professor of Architecture at UCLA. He received his B Arch from the University of Houston in 1980 and an M Arch from Harvard in 1982. After graduating from school, Denari interned at Aerospatiale’ Helicoptres in Paris and later moved to New York where he lived and worked until 1988. That year, he moved to Los Angeles where his office is based today. NMDA works worldwide with current projects in Taiwan, the United States, and Canada.

Denari is the recipient of the Los Angeles AIA Gold Medal in 2011. In 2009, he was given the California Community Foundation Fellowship from the United States Artists organisation and in 2008, he received an Architecture Award from the American Academy of Arts & Letters. In addition to these personal awards, NMDA has received more than 20 AIA awards. His work has been included in many exhibitions, including the solo shows “Fast Forward” in 2008 at the Museum of the City of New York, “Architects’ Work: HL23” in 2009 at Syracuse University, and “The Artless Drawing” in 2010 at Ace Gallery Los Angeles.

Denari lectures worldwide and has been a Visiting Professor at Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, and UC Berkeley among other schools and was the Director of SCI-Arc from 1997-2002. He is the author of Interrupted Projections (1996), Gyroscopic Horizons (1999), and Facticity, an 800 page book forthcoming in 2014.

NIGEL DENISON
Director,
Head of Markets and Wealth Management,
Bank of London and Middle East Plc,
United Kingdom

Nigel joined BLME as Director and Head of Treasury in November 2006. In 2009, he established the Asset Management business, and in 2011, he took over the Private Banking unit creating a single Wealth Management Division. Before joining BLME, he was the Head of European Distribution for WestLB’s Global Markets unit, which included Treasury, Capital Markets and Emerging Markets. Nigel began his career at Barclays Merchant Bank (later known as Barclays de Zoete Wedd/BZW), where he became Head of Trading for Barclays Swaps and Options European business, based in London. He then worked in New York where he ran the derivatives trading operations for Barclays.

NISHA PILLAI
News Anchor (BBC World News),
United Kingdom

Nisha Pillai started her career at Schroders, before moving into journalism on The Investors Chronicle and joining the BBC as a reporter on The Money Programme.

After winning a Royal Television Society award for her nine month investigation into Robert Maxwell’s financial empire, she moved to the flagship current affairs show Panorama and then to BBC World.

Nisha has led live location coverage of the Indian elections and the 50th anniversary of Pakistan’s Independence. She also hosted live interactive debates between audiences in America, Pakistan and Jordon.

Nisha has presented the BBC’s flagship interview programme HARDtalk, with guests ranging from the late Sir Yehudi Menuhin and VS Naipaul to Phil Collins.

In her presentations Nisha makes sense of the Indian big picture, taking in both the economic trends and the regional diversity amongst 22 disparate states.

Aside from broadcasting Nisha teaches presentation skills to senior executives at London Business School. She also records podcast interviews with economists and research analysts for a US ratings agency.

Ms Mthethwa holds an MBA Corporate Finance from the University of Sheffield, UK, and an MSc Economics (thesis not defended) from the University of Paris II, Sorbonne, France. She was appointed Chief Executive Officer of the NEF in July 2005, bringing a diverse knowledge of banking, capital markets and international investment in South Africa. Her experiences encompass both private and public sector activities and provide the NEF with an unparalleled understanding of the environment in which the organisation operates.

Prior to joining the NEF, Ms Mthethwa worked for a French investment bank in London, held responsibility for Risk Management Control at the South African Reserve Bank and worked in the Treasury division at Standard Corporate and Merchant Bank. She was also employed as a Regional Director for Europe by the dti in Germany and France to promote European investment in South Africa. In 2002 she returned to South Africa to become the Chief Director of the Black Economic Empowerment Unit of the dti, which developed the Government’s Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) strategy, the B-BBEE Act and the Codes of Good Practice.

Ms Mthethwa is Chairman of Group Five and also serves on the Boards of SANLAM Ltd, SANLAM Life Insurance Ltd and the Industrial Development Corporation. Among her recent accolades are: 2011 Corporate Business Woman of the Year (Business Women’s Association), 2011 African Business Woman of the Year (Africa Investor), and appointment as a Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur (Knight of the National Order of Merit) by the former President of the French Republic, Mr Nicolas Sarkozy. Recently she was awarded South Africa’s Most Influential Women in Business and Government as well Woman of Substance by African Woman Chartered Accountants.

After an academic career at Cambridge University, Julia King held senior business and engineering posts at Rolls-Royce for eight years. She returned to academia as Principal of the Engineering Faculty at Imperial College, London, becoming Vice-Chancellor of Aston University in December 2006.

Julia currently advises Government as a member of the Committee on Climate Change, the UAE-UK Business Council, the Airports Commission and as the UK’s Low Carbon Business Ambassador, and previously as a non-executive Director of the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills, through the ‘King Review’ (2008) on reducing vehicle emissions, and as a member of the ‘Browne Review’ (2011) on university funding.

She was an inaugural member of the Governing Board of the European Institute of Innovation & Technology. She is a non-executive Director of Angel Trains and the Green Investment Bank, and a member of the Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership, the Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council, and the Board of Universities UK, chairing its Employability, Business and Industry Network. Julia’s work has been recognised by the Grunfeld, Bengough, Kelvin, John Collier, Lunar Society and Constance Tipper medals, the Erna Hamburger Prize and the President’s Prize of the Engineering Professors’ Council. She is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and was awarded a CBE in 1999 and a DBE in 2012.

Dato’ Dr Azmi is currently the Director General for Islamic Research and Training Institute (IRTI), Islamic Development Bank, Jeddah.

Prior to this, he was the Dean of the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM), Institute of Islamic Banking and Finance as well as a Professor at the Department of Finance, Faculty of Economics & Management Sciences, International Islamic University Malaysia. Prof. Azmi was also the former Deputy Rector (Deputy Vice Chancellor) in charge of Academic and Research from 2002 until 2008 in IIUM. He had also served as the Dean of the Faculty of Economics & Management Sciences at the same university from 1996 to early 2002.

David Walker is the Deputy Chief Medical Officer for England. He was formerly the Regional Director of Public Health for the Midlands and the East of England. He has been an Executive Director in the NHS for the last 12 years.

David holds a number of academic appointments and was formerly a visiting scientist at the Centre’s for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. He has published widely in the fields of health protection and disease surveillance methodology. He is presently the chair of the UK National Screening Committee.

Prof. Dr Uwe Krueger was appointed as a director in June 2011 and became CEO on 1 August 2011. He is a physicist who studied at the University of Frankfurt, graduating with a PhD in complex system theory. He also studied at Columbia University (New York), the Ecole Normale Supérieure (Paris) and at Harvard (Boston). In 2012, he received an honorary professorship from the University of Frankfurt. He has spent the majority of his career leading engineering and consulting organisations in North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific.

He began his career at international strategy consulting firm, A T Kearney, followed by leadership positions at Hochtief AG, including CEO of central and eastern Europe and senior vice president and chairman of Turner International based in Dallas, USA. More recently, he was the chief executive officer of Swiss company, Oerlikon, and joined Atkins from London and San Francisco-based private equity investment firm Texas Pacific Group and Cleantech Switzerland, a trade promotion organisation in the area of sustainability operating on behalf of the Swiss Federal Government. He is currently on the Board of Zementis, Inc (San Diego, USA), ONTEX S.A. (Zele, Belgium) and SUSI Partners (Zurich, Switzerland).

PROFESSOR DAVID GANN CBE
Vice-President (Development and Innovation),
Imperial College London,
United Kingdom

David Gann holds the Chair in Innovation and Technology Management at Imperial College Business School and Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Imperial College London. He is a Chartered Civil Engineer with a PhD in Industrial Economics. He previously held the Royal Academy of Engineering Chair in Innovative Manufacturing at Sussex University. He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2010 Queen's Birthday Honours, for services to engineering.

He founded Imperial’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship Group, which hosts research programmes with funding of more than £60m. The Group collaborates closely with firms including IBM, Microsoft, Nokia, Citigroup, Finmeccanica, Arup and BP. He leads executive programmes on innovation for business leaders in organisations such as IBM, Laing O’Rourke, Total, Citigroup, Arup and the Royal Society.

David has deep experience at executive board level in industry, starting new businesses and advising senior ministers on government policy. From 2007-2011 he was seconded to Laing O’Rourke plc as Group Innovation Executive responsible for establishing group-wide innovation strategy and R&D programmes. David co-founded and was Chairman of the Think Play Do Group, an Imperial College spin-out specialising in innovation strategy and management.

David is Chairman of the Smart London Board, reporting to Boris Johnson, Mayor of London. He is a member of the London Enterprise Panel’s Digital, Creative, Science & Technology Group and member of the UK’s Information Economy Council. He sits on the Advisory Board of the Association of Consultancy and Engineering and is a Trustee and Director of the Institute for Sustainability. David is a Patron, Trustee and Board Member of Brighton Dome & Festival.

Prof. Sultan Abu-Orabi is an Organic Chemist who obtained his PhD from the University of Michigan, USA in 1982. He is the current Secretary General of the Association of Arab Universities, headquartered in Amman, Jordan.

Prof. Abu-Orabi previously served as President of Yarmouk University, Jordan's second largest public university, President of Irbid National University and Tafila Technical University in Jordan. He was also the President of the Jordanian Chemical Society and President of the Arab Union Of Chemists and a Visiting Professor at Bahrain University and at King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Saudi Arabia.

Prof. Abu-Orabi is Editor-in-Chief of three international chemistry journals, and is a member of many Editorial Boards. He has organised, served on Advisory Boards, and presented lectures at numerous regional & international conferences.

He has also received several research fellowships and awards (i.e. Shuman prize, Alexander Von Humboldt Award and Distinguished Achievement Alumina Award from Western Michigan University, USA) and published over 60 papers throughout his 30 years career and supervised and served on examining committees for more than 60 MSC & PhD students.

Award-winning Rabia Z. created her internationally-renowned fashion brand based upon her own personal journey after taking up the Hijab whilst living in USA during the tragic 9/11 events. Only then did she realise the challenges faced by moderate Muslim women trying to dress conservatively and felt it was part of her calling to help empower women globally.

Gaining worldwide recognition, Rabia Z. has been seen on many of the most haloed ramps in New York, UAE, London, South Africa amongst others and is featured in the likes of Vogue, New York Times, Elle, Marie Claire, Grazia, Harpers Bazaar, Time Magazine and more. Within a few months of launching online, the brand was already selling to over 45 countries.

Rabia is also respected as a strong voice of the modern Arab Woman featuring in the award-winning documentaries like ‘DoBuy-The Fabric of Faith’; she is the face of Persil Black - Abaya Shampoo, supports many charity initiatives, and presents regularly at global forums.

Now, having taken a break after the birth of her twins, Rabia Z. is about to launch her first flagship store in UAE alongside franchise stores globally as well as a revamped online store.

RAHEEL MOHAMMED
Founder and Director,
Maslaha,
United Kingdom

Raheel Mohammed is the founder and director of Maslaha and has recently been profiled as one of Britain’s 50 New Radicals in The Observer/Guardian newspaper for pioneering creative change to some of society’s most difficult issues. He has created award-winning resources which tackle inequalities in Muslim communities in areas such as health, education, the role of women in Islam, and the historical relationship between Islam and Europe. Maslaha’s health work, for example, is now used locally, nationally, and internationally and has won awards for tackling chronic conditions in innovative ways.

Maslaha’s creative exhibitions are currently touring internationally and have been hosted in 10 countries. He has been invited by several government agencies, think-tanks, and cultural organisations such as those in the US, Norway, Germany, Oman and to talk about his work around faith, social innovation, social entrepreneurship and education. Raheel was also selected for the Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow Conference in Doha.

Raheel helped set up and was the Assistant Director at the award-winning Off-screen Education Program, advising on and initiating education programs designed to raise awareness of Middle East and Muslim cultures through art. He also helped to launch Edge of Arabia, a touring exhibition of contemporary Saudi art and is an award-winning journalist.

Prior to her current appointment, she was the Global Head of Islamic Markets at Bursa Malaysia. Prior to that, she was the Chief Corporate Officer and Head of International Business at Kuwait Finance House Malaysia, CEO of Bank AlKhair Malaysia (previously Unicorn Investment Bank) and Senior Vice President Investment Banking at RHB Sakura Merchant Bank (now RHB Investment Bank).

She had also served in Pengurusan Danaharta Nasional Berhad during the Asian financial crisis and was with CIMB Investment Bank over a period of almost 10 years covering debt and equity origination and equity sales. She spent her early days at KPMG Peat Marwick Consultants.

She was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from the University of East London, United Kingdom and also holds an LLB (Hons) from the same university.

Samia Bouchareb, General Manager of Coca-Cola Morocco and Equatorial Africa, began her career at Coca-Cola Morocco as Senior Brand Manager. She was appointed to roles of increasing responsibility, including Morocco Marketing Manager and Country Manager, as well as head of Innovation& Business Development and Marketing Manager for the North & West Africa Business Unit.

She is a member of the Company’s Eurasia and Africa Group Women’s Leadership Council. With a strong commitment to community development, she is involved in organisations impacting women’s economic entrepreneurship in rural and urban Morocco asa board member of Injaz El Maghrib. She leads the Company’s engagement in a project designed to empower more than 100 southern Moroccan women.

Samia holds a degree from Institut Superieur de Commerce in Paris and an MBA from University of Rochester, New York. Married with two children, Samia lives in Casablanca with her family.

SEHREEN NOOR ALI
Head of Business Development,
Noodle Education,
United States of America

Sehreen Noor Ali is the head of business development for Noodle Education, a company named by Forbes as the Top 10 Industry- Disrupting Startups of 2013. In this capacity, she leads the company’s medium and long term business strategies for becoming the premier education search destination; develops partnerships with governments to make ‘big data’ learner-friendly; and develops a marketplace to organize online and offline education providers.

She launched her career at the U.S. Department of State where she served on the core team charged with planning and executing President Obama’s vision for global engagement, including through education. She also led the strategy and product development of the first digital media education tool to connect the U.S. government directly with Persian-speaking diasporas and was personally recognised by President Obama for her work.

She is a passionate community-builder who leads and creates tight networks, including as chairperson for a youth development organisation and as founder of EdTechWomen. She sits on the Board of Advisors for SXSWedu’s LaunchEdu initiative and on the Technology Council for the Brooklyn Children’s Museum. In 2013, the Diplomatic Courier recognised her on the list of The Top 99 under 33 in Foreign Policy. She publishes and speaks on education, international affairs, and business in several outlets, including the Aspen Institute; HuffPo Live; The Daily Beast; and the Harvard Business Review. She’s a proud alumna of Brown University (B.A) and Harvard University (Ed.M), and is also a fellow of the Truma an National Security Project and the American Muslim Civic Leadership Institute.

TAA WONGBE
Managing Partner,
The Khana Group for West Africa,
Republic of Liberia

Taa Wongbe is a seasoned entrepreneur and a founding Managing Partner of The Khana Group, an international development and corporate advisory firm doing work in Liberia, Ghana, Uganda and Nigeria.

Mr Wongbe’s focus is economic growth and job creation strategies and he works with SMEs in Africa to help build sustainable capacity and develop those businesses to become job engines. Prior to focusing on Africa, Mr. Wongbe co-founded Pangean Technologies, an award-winning technology company that provided communications solutions to Fortune 500 companies.

In addition, Mr Wongbe’s worked at Deloitte & Touche and spearheaded projects related to strategic planning and program management. He has worked on projects with USAID contracting firms, The World Bank, African Development Bank, OPIC, EXIM Bank, IMF and various Private Equity firms on multiple engagements in Africa.

Tan Sri Dato’ Azman is the Managing Director of Khazanah Nasional Berhad, the strategic investment arm of the Government of Malaysia. He is also the Chairman of Iskandar Investment Berhad and Axiata Group Berhad and holds various Board memberships including of Iskandar Regional Development Authority (IRDA), Yayasan Khazanah and Jadwa Investment of Saudi Arabia. He serves on various public service bodies including Performance Management and Delivery Unit (PEMANDU), Executive Committee of Malaysia International Islamic Financial Centre (MIFC), Bumiputera Agenda Action Council and Governance Council of Malaysian Innovation Agency. He is also a member of the Board of Trustees of Asia Business Council, the INSEAD East Asia Council and the Global Agenda Council on the Role of Business for the 2011 World Economic Forum.

Formerly, he was the Managing Director and co-founder of BinaFikir Sdn Bhd, a financial consultancy firm, Director, Head of Country Research, Salomon Smith Barney Malaysia and Director, Head of Research, Union Bank of Switzerland in Malaysia. He also served in various capacities with Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) and National Electricity Board (LLN), as it was formerly known.

He obtained his M.Phil in Development Studies from Darwin College, University of Cambridge and a postgraduate diploma in Islamic Studies from the International Islamic University, Malaysia. He is a Fellow Chartered Certified Accountant (FCCA) and a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA).

YB Dato’ Sri Mustapa Mohamed was appointed as the Malaysian Minister of International Trade and Industry on 10 April 2009.

Previously, he held various ministerial positions under various portfolios, namely Agriculture and Agro-Based Industry, Higher Education, Finance, Entrepreneur Development and the Prime Minister’s Department. He was also the Executive Director, National Economic Action Council, Adviser, Political Secretary and Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Finance. Before entering active politics, Dato’ Sri Mustapa was an Administrative and Diplomatic Officer in the Ministry of Finance. Later, he lectured at the National Institute of Public Administration and served as Special Officer to the Minister of Finance.

Appointed Senator in 1991, he served three terms as Member of Parliament for the Jeli Parliamentary Constituency in Kelantan, Malaysia. He is a member of the UMNO Supreme Council since 1993.

A graduate in Economics from the University of Melbourne, Australia, he pursued a Master’s degree at Boston University. Academic awards bestowed to Dato’ Sri Mustapa include an Honorary Doctorate of Commerce from the University of Melbourne (1997), and an Honorary Degree of Law by the University of Nottingham (2005). Dato’ Sri Mustapa also went through the Lee Kuan Yew Exchange Fellowship Programme in January 2002. He was awarded an Honorary Fellowship to the National Institute of Public Administration in 1997, and as a Fellow of the Financial Services Institute of Australia (FINSIA) in 2006.

Dato’ Sri Mustapa is married with four children. He is the author of eight books on the Malaysian economy and national politics.

Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s career as a civil servant, political leader, diplomat and statesman spanned 45 years. He was born in 1939 into a prominent religious family in the northern state of Penang. Graduating in Islamic Studies from the University of Malaya, Abdullah started in the Malaysian civil service in 1964. He left the civil service as Deputy Secretary General of the Ministry of Culture, Youth & Sports to become a politician in 1978, and rose to become Prime Minister of Malaysia 25 years later, in October 2003.

Abdullah held various positions in government, including Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Minister of Education, Minister of Defence, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Home Affairs and Minister of Finance. Excelling in diplomacy and international relations, as Prime Minister, Abdullah sought to improve bilateral and multi-lateral cooperation, actively leading (among others) the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) when Malaysia assumed the chair of these international organisations.

As Prime Minister, Abdullah introduced the concept of Islam Hadhari to guide development efforts in Malaysia and the wider Islamic world. This move towards progressive Islamic civilisation seeks to make Muslims understand that progress is enjoined by Islam. It is an approach that is compatible with modernity and yet firmly rooted in the noble values and injunctions of Islam. Islam Hadhari espouses ten fundamental principles which were accepted by Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

Abdullah focused on human capital development as a key pillar of his Administration. This went beyond merely strengthening lower and higher education in Malaysia, to enhancing mindsets and infusing ethical, moral and religious values. Science and technology was further promoted, while innovation and creativity was pushed to the fore.

As Chairman of the OIC, Abdullah waged a war against poverty and the lack of knowledge and development in the Muslim world. Besides emphasising the enhancement of education in OIC countries, Malaysia sought to share its experience in national economy development by initiating a series of self-help projects involving OIC Members and the Islamic Development Bank with the objective of increasing capacities in several poor member countries of the OIC. The immediate purpose was to generate income and provide employment, while the longer-term intention was to assist the OIC countries upgrade their governance and development efforts.

Abdullah also sought to provide an economic face to the OIC, in a bid to enhance trade, business and investment linkages between Member countries. The World Islamic Economic Forum (WIEF), of which Abdullah is the founder patron, continues to be an important gathering of government and business leaders from the Muslim world and beyond. International Halal fora and trade expositions, initiated by Malaysia, are now held regularly throughout the globe to advance Halal industries, for the benefit of the larger Ummah.br />
Tun Abdullah married the late Tun Endon Dato' Mahmood in 1965 and after 40 years of marriage, lost her after a prolonged battle with cancer on 20 October 2005. They have 2 children and 6 grandchildren. Tun Abdullah married Tun Jeanne Abdullah on 9 June 2007.

Abdullah stepped down as Prime Minister on 3 April 2009. He remains committed to pursuing development, promoting progressive Islam and enhancing understanding between the Muslim and Western worlds. He is Chairman of the Malaysian Institute of Islamic Understanding (IKIM), and Patron of the Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies (IAIS) in Kuala Lumpur which he established in 2009. He is the founding patron for the World Islamic Economic Forum. He holds several government advisory roles, including Malaysia’s regional growth corridors and Malaysia Airlines. Internationally, Abdullah is the member of the InterAction Council, board member of BOAO Forum for Asia (BFA) and World Muslims Foundation, and Chair of the Commonwealth Eminent Persons Group.

THE RT HON. ALAN DUNCAN MP
Minister of State for International Development,
United Kingdom

Alan Duncan was appointed Minister of State for International Development in May 2010. He has been the Conservative MP for Rutland and Melton since 1992.

Alan attended Beechwood Park School in Hertfordshire and Merchant Taylors’ School before going on to study politics and economics at St John’s College, Oxford from 1976 to 1979, where he was elected President of the Oxford Union.

He then went on to win a Kennedy Scholarship at Harvard University, where he studied from 1981 to 1982.

Alan held a number of roles in the Shadow Cabinet before being appointed Minister of State for International Development.

His roles have included:
• Shadow Health Minister • Shadow Minister for Trade and Industry
• Shadow Foreign Minister
• Shadow Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs
• Shadow Secretary for International Development
• Shadow Secretary of State for Transport
• Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform
• Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
• Shadow Minister for Prisons and Probation

After graduating from Oxford, Alan worked with Shell International between 1979 and 1981, and then as an oil trader for Marc Rich and Co from 1982 to 1988.

Between 1988 and 1992, he was an independent consultant and adviser to foreign governments, specialising in oil supplies, shipping and refining.

In 1989, he set up the independent Harcourt Consultants to advise on oil and gas matters, and has specialised in The Middle East for 30 years.

THE RT HON. LORD STEPHEN GREEN
Minister of State for Trade and Investment,
United Kingdom

Lord Green of Hurstpierpoint is Minister of State for Trade and Investment. He took up his appointment in January 2011 after a 28-year career with HSBC, which culminated in his appointment as Group Chairman of HSBC Holdings in 2006.

He has been Chairman of the British Bankers' Association and Chairman of the Prime Minister's Business Council for Britain. He has also served as a trustee of The British Museum and an honorary trustee of Peking University.

BIOGRAPHY
Baroness Warsi was appointed Senior Minister of State at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office and Minister for Faith and Communities at the Department for Communities and Local Government in September 2012. She was previously Chairman of the Conservative Party and Minister without Portfolio. She is a Conservative member of the House of Lords.

SENIOR MINISTER OF STATE
The Minister is responsible for:
•Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh
•Central Asia
•Human rights
•UN, OIC, International Organisations and the International Criminal Court
•All FCO business in the House of Lords

MINISTER OF STATE FOR FAITH AND COMMUNITIES
•The Minister works with religious and community leaders to promote faith,religious tolerance and stronger communities within the UK.

EDUCATION
Baroness Warsi attended Birkdale High School and Dewsbury College before studying law at the University of Leeds, gaining an LLB. She later attended the College of Law, York, to complete her legal practice training.

POLITICAL CAREER
She became Conservative Party Vice Chairman for Cities and Diversity and was appointed to the House of Lords in 2007, becoming Shadow Minister for Communities and Social Action in the Shadow Cabinet. In May 2010 she was appointed Minister without Portfolio.

CAREER OUTSIDE POLITICS
Baroness Warsi trained with the Crown Prosecution Service and the Home Office Immigration Department before setting up her own specialist legal practice.She has also been a racial justice campaigner for many years and was instrumental in the launch of Operation Black Vote, a not-for-profit national organisation that works towards greater racial justice and equality throughout the UK.

Tim Gore OBE is the Director, Global Networks and Communities for the University of London International Programmes which is a unique and historic system of distance and flexible learning with 54,000 students in over 180 countries.

Tim’s main role is the development of the networks and communities of stakeholders that are crucial to reputation and brand of the International Programmes. As such, he oversees planning and implementation of worldwide communications and marketing campaigns; the development of a global network of over 130 independent institutions; relationships with in-country stakeholders such as regulators and employers; and the alumni network.

Previous roles include Director of the Centre for Indian Business, the University of Greenwich and a number of senior leadership roles with the British Council, working closely with educationalists, institutions, companies and governments to improve bilateral and multilateral educational links in Hong Kong, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, Jordan and India. He was awarded with the OBE in 2008.

Tim is an active writer, researcher and speaker on a wide range of higher education subjects, including international strategy; reputation and risk; transnational education; online and flexible delivery; MOOCs and student experience.

TUN MUSA HITAM
Chairman,
WIEF Foundation,
Malaysia

Tun Musa Hitam, who is currently Chairman of the World Islamic Economic Forum (WIEF) Foundation was Malaysia’s Deputy Prime Minister until 1986. In the course of his service in the Malaysian government, he held various positions including Minister of Home Affairs, Education, Primary Industries and Trade and Industries and Chairman of the Federal Land Development Authority (FELDA). Among his major official activities were as Leader of Malaysian Investment Missions to Europe, USA and Japan and representing Malaysia at UN ECOSOC related negotiating and regular conferences.

Since Tun Musa’s retirement from politics in 1987, he held Chairmanships of 3 Public Listed Companies and various business related institutions both at domestic and international levels. He was Chairman of the Malaysia – China Business Council, Co-Chair of the Eminent Persons Group (EPG) of the Asean – China, 15 year economic cooperation program and Chairman of the EPG to draft the Asean Charter. Currently, Tun Musa is Chairman of the Sime Darby Foundation, Chairman of the International Advisory Panel of CIMB Bank, Chairman of the International Selection Panel of the Royal Award on Islamic Finance and member of the Advisory Panel of the Iskandar Development Authority.

Tun Musa holds a BA (University of Malaya) and MA (University of Sussex) and held a resident Fellowship at Harvard University. For his services to the nation, The Yang Di Pertuan Agong (King) of Malaysia conferred him Malaysia highest award which carries the title “Tun".

Vishnu is the current Country Representative for Ashoka Innovators for the public in India. Ashoka is a global association of the world’s leading social entrepreneurs with system-changing solutions for the world’s most urgent social problems. Since 1981, Ashoka has elected 3,000 social entrepreneurs as fellows, more than any other organisation in the world, providing them with living stipends, professional support, and access to a global network of peers in more than 70 countries. Within ten years of election, 93% of the Fellows’ original ideas have been replicated by other organisations.

Vishnu leads Ashoka India's efforts to create an "Everyone is a Change maker" world, one where each person has the skills, drives, and resources to push forward solutions to pressing social and environmental problems, and each organisation works to maximise the change making potential of its members.

Vishnu also heads the Housing for all programs at Ashoka in India, which is working on increasing the supply of affordable housing for low income communities in India on market based models. The program has reached 6 cities, catalysing around 10,000 homes in a short period of 2 years.

Before Ashoka, Vishnu co-founded and led two companies working on financial transactions and animation technology in Singapore for 8 years. After one of the companies was acquired, he moved to India to head a leadership school for three years.

He started his career as a 3D and film special effects artist. He holds a couple of patents from his ventures and has worked on a wide range of hybrid business models, technologies, innovations, communities and geographies.

Walid joined SMBC Europe in January 2009. He is part of the Structured Finance Department and has a strong knowledge of the MENA project finance and corporate banking markets with over 9 years of experience in the region. He also has extensive knowledge of the infrastructure and energy sectors as well as a sound understanding of both established and emerging PPP models in terms of structures, framework and evolution.

Walid is also Head of Islamic Finance and has lead a successful effort to enable SMBCE to offer and advise its clients on Sharia-compliant debt products in the MENA as well as Southeast Asia for both project, corporate and trade debt. He also works closely with the Financial Advisory team and co-ordinates many of their activities with financial institutions in the MENA region. He has recently co-lead SMBCE’s advisory mandate for the Madina Airport PPP project in Saudi Arabia (closed June 2012).

Prior to joining SMBCE, Walid spent over four years at WestLB AG in London, part of a MENA debt origination team focused on the syndicated bank loan markets. Walid holds a MBA degree from Southern Methodist University, USA.

Zeyba Rahman is the Senior Program Officer of Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art. In this role, she leads the national grant-making program, which support projects that use arts to increase Americans’ understanding and engagement with Muslim cultures.

Prior to joining the Foundation, Rahman has been an internationally recognised creative director/producer on bridge building projects with the most renowned cultural and educational organisations over two decades. As Director of Asia and North America for the Fes Festival of World Sacred Music, Morocco she launched the Festival’s international programs in the US and expanded its presence in Asia. Her past experience includes serving as Artistic Director for Arts Midwest’s Caravanserai: A Place Where Cultures Meet; providing curatorial leadership for BAM’s Mic Check Hip Hop; Creative Consultant, Public Programs, Metropolitan Museum’s Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia and Later South Asia Galleries; Chief Curator, Alliance Francaise’s World Nomads Morocco Festival, honored by Morocco’s King Mohammed VI for programmatic excellence; Project Director, planning phase, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation/National Endowment for the Arts Global Cultural Connections; Project Director, Children’s Museum of Manhattan’s Muslim Worlds; Senior Advisor, Muslim Voices: Art & Ideas Festival organized by Asia Society, BAM and NYU Center for Dialogue. She is a member of the Steering Committee for ITVS; Arts Advisory Committee for Artworks For Freedom; on the Nominating Committee for the Civitella Foundation, Italy and USA Artists, and an advisor to PBS TV’s SACRED, a documentary series. Twice honored by New York City’s government, Zeyba is the subject of two television profiles as a global cultural leader.

H.E ABDELILAH BENKIRANE
Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Morocco

Mr Abdelilah Benkirane, Head of Government, was born in 1954 in Rabat.

He is the Secretary General of the Party of Justice and Development (PJD), which came first in legislative elections of 25 November 2011 with 107 seats. He has been member of Parliament for four terms and was elected in 2008 as Secretary General of the Party of Justice and Development in replacement of Saad Eddine El Othmani. The Head of Government, who joined Shabiba Islamiya Movement in1976, was President of the Reform and Renewal Movement and ofthe National Council of the PJD. He was also editor of "AI Islah", "Arraya" and "Attajdeed" newspapers. Abdelilah Benkirane is also a member of the High Council of education and former member of the special education-training commission.

He graduated with a bachelor degree in physics in 1979. He was also was a teacher at the teacher training school of Rabat.

He is married and has six children

H.E. ALI BABACAN
Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Turkey

Ali Babacan was born in Ankara in 1967. He graduated first in the Class of 1985 from the TED Ankara High School. In 1989, he received a Bachelor of Science Degree (BS) in Industrial Engineering from the Middle East Technical University in Ankara, where he ranked first among the graduates of that year.

In 1990, he was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship and attended the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, where he received his Master of Business Administration (MBA) in Marketing, Organizational Behavior and International Business in 1992.

From 1992 to 1994, he worked at a Chicago-based company providing financial consulting services to top executives of major banks in the United States. Subsequently, he returned to Ankara to run his family business from 1994 until 2002. In 2001, he became a Founding Member and Board Member of the Justice and Development Party (AkParti), a position which he still retains.

At the general elections held in November 2002, he was elected to Parliament and appointed as the Minister of Treasury, a cabinet position he retained throughout the 58th and 59th Governments of the Republic of Turkey until August 2007.

In addition to his tenure as Minister of Treasury, on June 3, 2005, he was appointed as Chief Negotiator in Turkey’s accession negotiations with the European Union.

At the general elections held on 22 July 2007 he was re-elected to the Parliament. On August 29, 2007, he was appointed as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the 60th Government of the Republic of Turkey. Regarding change in Cabinet in 2009 he was appointed as Deputy Prime Minister, in charge of Finance and Economy. After the 2011 general election he was appointed as Deputy Prime Minister For Economic and Financial Affairs.

In 1994, he graduated from the Al-Farabi Kazakh State National University with a degree in law; in 1998 he graduated from the Higher School of Public Administration under the President's Administration.

In 1995-1997 he worked as the Assistant and Senior Assistant Attorney in Medeu District in Almaty.

In 1998-1999 he held the post of the Chief Officer at the Agency for Strategic Planning and Reforms.

In 1999-2000 A. Issekeshev headed the Department for Registration and Enforcement of Central and Local Agencies’ Regulations of the Ministry of Justice.

From 2000 to 2001 he was the President of the National Legal Service CJSC under the Ministry on Justice ; later he worked in the private sector.

From November 2002 to June 2003 he served as the Advisor to the Minister of Economy and Budget Planning.

From 2003 he held the portfolio of the Vice Minister of Industry and Trade.

From 2006 he held the post of the Vice President of the Board at "Kazyna" Fund for Sustainable Development.

From 2007 to 2008 he was the Director for Marketing of financial projects in "Credit Swiss" JSC (Kazakhstan).

From February 2008 to May 2009 he served as the Aide to the President of Kazakhstan.

From May 2009 A.Issekeshev was the Minister of Industry and Trade.

In March 2010 he was appointed Vice Prime Minister – Minister of Industry and Trade.

On January 20, 2012, he was appointed Deputy Prime Minister – Minister of Industry and New Technologies of Kazakhstan.

H.E. ATIFETE JAHJAGA
President of the Republic of Kosovo

President Atifete Jahjaga was born on the 20th of April 1975 in Rashkoc – Gjakova.

Mrs Jahjaga was Deputy General Director of the Police of Kosovo from February 2009 until her election as President of the Republic of Kosovo, on April 7, 2011. Since the establishment of the Kosovo Police in early 2000, initially she served as a policeman, progressing at a regional level and that of the General Headquarters.

Atifete Jahjaga is the first woman President of the Republic of Kosovo, elected by the Parliament of Kosovo on April 7, 2011. President Jahjaga is the youngest female world leader to be elected, born on 20 April 1975, in Rashkoc – Gjakova. She is also the first female head of state in modern Balkans. Since March 2012, President Jahjaga is member of the Council of Women World Leaders (CWWL).

Mrs Jahjaga had been the Deputy General Director of the Police of Kosovo from February 2009. She had served as a police officer since the establishment of the Kosovo Police in early 2000, progressing to responsibilities at a regional level and then to General Headquarters.

Early in her career, President Jahjaga served in different positions in the implementation of law and order, among others in the professional standards unit, human resources department, personnel and training department, administration of the Kosovo Police and border police.

She completed her studies at the Faculty of Law of the University of Prishtina in 2000. In 2006-2007, she attended a postgraduate certification program in Police Management and Penal Law at the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom, Postgraduate Certification in Crime Science at the University of Virginia in the United States in 2007.

President Jahjaga has also attended professional and research programs at the European Centre for Security Studies “George C. Marshall” Germany, at the National Academy of the FBI in the USA and at the Department of Justice in the USA.

In addition to her native Albanian, President Jahjaga also speaks Serbian and English. She is married to Mr Astrit Kuçi and lives in Prishtina.

H.E. BAKIR IZETBEGOVIC
Member of the Presidency
of Bosnia and Herzegovina

President Bakir Izetbegovic was elected to a four-year term as the Bosniak Member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina on October 3, 2010 and was sworn into office on November 10, 2010. Prior to his election to the Presidency, President Izetbegovic served as a member of the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina from 2006 to 2010 and was the head of the delegation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. President Izetbegovic also served as a member of the House of Representative of the Parliament of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina from 2002 to 2006 and was a member of the Sarajevo Canton Assembly from 2000 to 2002. President Izetbegovic was born in 1956 and graduated from the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Sarajevo in 1981.

H.E. CRAIG CANNONIER
Premier of Bermuda,

The Hon. Craig Cannonier was born and raised in St David’s. Cannonier was educated at St George's Preparatory school and the Bermuda Institute. After obtaining his high school diploma, he attained a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Psychology from Towson State University in 1986. Shortly after graduating from university, Cannonier acquired retail management experience in a number of different areas.

Cannonier began his career at the MarketPlace Group where his responsibilities entailed human resources, training and purchasing. He also served as the General Manager of People's Pharmacy for ten years during which time he helped the pharmacy become one of the Island’s premier independently owned pharmacy. Prior to beginning his association with Esso Bermuda, Cannonier served as a Relationship Manager for Cable & Wireless. Craig Cannonier currently runs Esso City Tigermarket, Collector’s Hill Esso and Warwick Esso.Craig and his wife Antoinette are members of Marsden First United Methodist Church and enjoy spending time with family and friends. They have four children and a Yorkshire terrier puppy. Craig’s hobbies include sports, travelling, boating, as well as tackling various DIY projects around the house.

H.E. DR ROWSCH NORI SHAWAYS
Deputy Prime Minister of Iraq

His Excellency Dr Rowsch Nori Shaways was born in Sulaimaniya on the seventh of January 1947.

He finished his graduate study in the city of Mosul, College of Engineering in 1971, and then in 1976 completed post-graduate study in Germany to earn a master's degree followed by doctorate in 1985.

He was the chairman of the Kurds Students Society in Europe for the period 1975-1982.

Dr Shaways was one of the vibrant members of the Political Bureau of the Kurdistan Democratic Party since 1979 until today and was one of the active figures in opposition of the Baath regime, until the withdrawal of the ex-regime forces and governmental institutions from Kurdistan after the uprising of March 1991.

In 1992, he became president of the Kurdistan Democratic Party bloc in the Parliament of Kurdistan. In the same year he was selected as Minister of Interior and Deputy Prime Minister of the first Kurdistan government until 1996.

He became the Prime Minister of the Kurdistan government in 1996.

For the period 1999 to 2004, Dr Rowsch Nori Shaways served as President of the Kurdistan Parliament. After 2003 and during the Iraqi interim Governing Council, Shaways was alternate member of the Governing Council and the Commission for drafting the Iraqi constitution. Short after, he became the Iraqi Vice President and Deputy Prime Minister.

In 2006, Dr Shaways became a member of the Iraqi Parliament.

Between 2006-2010, he served as a member of the Political Council for National Security.

In 2010, he was selected once more as principle Vice Prime Minister and Chairman of the Kurdish Delegation of negotiators in Baghdad.

Dr Shaways is the grandson of Sadiq Shaways, officer and engineer in the Ottoman army and one of the founders of the Kurdish political movements, including the Kurdistan Democratic Party and a member of the presidency of the Iraqi National Peace Council in its first formation.

His grandfather from his mother' side, is the Kurdish poet Sheikh Ahmed Salam Alaazibani, a Kurdish politician who took part in the Derbandikhan battles along with Sheikh Mahmoud Alhafeed.

H.E. HAMID KARZAI
President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan

Hamid Karzai was born on the 24th of December, 1957 (Quaus 9th, 1336) in the village of Karz, near Kandahar, Afghanistan.

His grandfather, Khair Mohammad Khan, had served during Afghanistan’s war of independence and as the Deputy Speaker of the Senate. His father, Abdul Ahad Karzai, was a tribal (Popalzai) elder and a significant national political figure, who served as the Deputy Speaker of the Parliament during the 1960s. Abdul Karzai moved with his family to Kabul upon his election to the Parliament.

After graduating from high school, he traveled to India as an exchange student in 1976, and was accepted to study for his Masters Degree in International Relations and Political Science from Simla University. He obtained his Master’s Degree in 1983, shortly after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (which began in 1979).

Hamid Karzai then traveled to Pakistan, joining the Mujahideen fighters resisting the Soviet occupation of his homeland. In 1985, he traveled to Lille, France, to attend a three-month journalism course. When he returned to Peshawar, Pakistan, he served as the Director of Information and later as the Deputy Director of the Political Office of the National Liberation Front led by Professor Sebghatullah Mujadidi. After the formation of the transitional government of the Mujahideen in 1989, he was appointed Director of the Foreign Relations Unit in the Office of the President of the Interim Government. When the Mujahideen Government was established in Kabul in 1992, Hamid Karzai was appointed Deputy Foreign Minister. Two years later, when the civil war between the various Mujahideen groups began, he resigned from his post, and began to work actively for the organization of a national Loya Jirga (Grand Council). A devoted Muslim and Afghan patriot, he believed that only through a Loya Jirga could Afghanistan’s difficulties be overcome, and the differences between the competing parties resolved peacefully. This belief was borne out by the Emergency Loya Jirga of 2002 and the Constitutional Loya Jirga in 2003.

In August 1999, Abdul Ahad Karzai, who was organising resistance to the Taliban from his base in Quetta, Pakistan, was assassinated by the Taliban and their foreign supporters.

Hamid Karzai with other three like-minded men returned to Uruzgan Province in October 2001, and worked to coordinate local efforts to rid Afghanistan of the Taliban. On December 5th, 2001, while he was still in Afghanistan leading these efforts, he was elected Chairman of the Interim Administration of Afghanistan, by participants at the UN-sponsored Bonn Conference. He, along with the appointed Cabinet, took his oath of office on December 22nd of that year.

During Afghanistan’s first Presidential Election, on October 9th, 2004, Hamid Karzai won the majority of the votes, and was elected to a 5-year term as President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. He took his oath of allegiance at Salam Khana Palace on December 7th, 2004, in the presence of dignitaries and officials from around the world. Hamid Karzai run for the second term in 2009 Presidential Elections and was elected as the President of Afghanistan. He took oath of allegiance at Salam Khana Palace on November 19, 2009 in presence of dignitaries and high level foreign officials.

Hamid Karzai has been awarded many honors, among them a Honorary PhD Degree from Simla University of India (2002), Honorary Knighthood from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth (2003), the Philadelphia Liberty Medal (2004), World’s Most Successful President (2004), Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development (2005) and the American Bar Association-Asia Rule of Law Award (2003).

H.E. MD. ABDUL HAMID
President of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh,

His Excellency Mr Abdul Hamid had his IA and BA from Guru Dayal College in Kishoregunj. Later on he was graduated in Law form Dhaka Central Law College and joined the Bar for legal practice.

Mr Hamid has a dedicated career in politics and social welfare. He involved in politics in 1959 as a member of Chattra League.

Mr Abdul Hamid participated at the glorious war of liberation in 1971. He went to India and led the independence struggle as the Chairman of Meghalaya recruiting camp in Agartala and Sub-Sector Commander of Bangladesh Liberation Force (Mujib Bahini) for the then Sunamgunj and Kishoregunj Sub-Divisions..

Immediately after his return to the newly liberated land, he administered the chair of Kishoregunj Relief and Rehabilitation Committee and was entrusted with responsibilities of the Vice President of Kishoregunj Awami League in 1974. After the cruel assassination of the Father of the Nation, Mr Hamid was arrested by the then Gen. Zia’s autocratic military regime during 1976-78. He served as the President of District Awami League from 1978 to 2009. As a social activist and patron of cultural and educational initiatives.

He has a luminous political trajectory. He was the youngest member elected for the Pakistan National Assembly in 1970 from Mymensingh, member of the Constituent Assembly 1972, elected MP for the National Parliament of Bangladesh in 1973, 1986, 1991, 1996, 2001 from Bangladesh Awami League. Mr Hamid was the Deputy Speaker of the National Parliament from 1996 to 2001 and became the Speaker of the House from July to October 2001. He was the Deputy Leader of the Opposition from 2001 to 2006. Mr Abdul Hamid became the Speaker of the Parliament again in 2009. He became the Acting President of the Republic on 14 March 2013. Mr Abdul Hamid has been elected the 20th President of the People's Republic of Bangladesh unopposed on 22 April 2013.

Mr Abdul Hamid is married with 3 sons and a daughter. His interests rest on International Politics, Contemporary History and Comparative Study of Constitutions around the world.

The eldest of three siblings of Late Mian Muhammad Sharif, Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif was born on December 25, 1949 in Lahore. Mr Muhammad Nawaz Sharif got his early education from prestigious schools and earned his graduation from the famous Government College, Lahore. After completion of his academics, he joined the family business and also participated actively in social and charitable activities.

Muhammad Nawaz Sharif started active politics when he joined the Punjab Cabinet as Finance Minister in 1981. He also held the portfolio of Minister for Sports.

In the 1985 general elections, he was elected to both the National and Punjab Provincial Assemblies. On April 9, 1985, he was sworn-in as Chief Minister of Punjab. He also served as caretaker Chief Minister of Punjab. After winning majority in the 1988 Provincial Assembly Elections, he was re-elected as Chief Minister of Punjab.

He was elected as Prime Minister of Pakistan and held the office from November 1, 1990 to July 18, 1993 when President Ghulam Ishaq Khan (late) arbitrarily dissolved the National Assembly. The Supreme Court annulled the former President’s unconstitutional act and reinstated the National Assembly and Nawaz Sharif’s government on May 26, 1993. However, Muhammad Nawaz Sharif resigned from his office on July 18, 1993 to facilitate fresh elections in the country.

He remained leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly from October 19, 1993 to 5th November 1996.

He was again elected the Prime Minister of Pakistan on February 17, 1997 after his party won an overwhelming majority in the general elections. General (Retd) Pervez Musharraf staged a coup and overthrew his democratically elected popular government on Oct 12, 1999. He was sentenced for life and underwent 14 months of imprisonment before being forced into exile by General (Retd) Pervez Musharraf.

During previous tenures of his government, a number of mega development projects were completed including South West Asia’s first 367km motorway, linking Lahore with Islamabad. Efforts were made to strengthen the economy with the help of private sector and projects like Ghazi Barotha, Gwadar Mini port, JF-17 Fighter Jet, international airports in Karachi and Lahore, Optic Fibre Project and opening up of Telecom sector are some of the hallmarks of his economic policies. Land was distributed among landless peasants in Sindh.

Relations with the Central Asian Muslim Republics were strengthened and ECO was given a boost. His most important contribution was success in re-invigorating the economy of the country by pursuing a policy of liberalization, privatization and deregulation despite economic sanctions. He succeeded in repealing the controversial Eighth Amendment unanimously and the adoption of anti-defection Fourteenth Amendment Bill.

In an attempt to end the Afghan civil war after the withdrawal of Soviet Forces, he succeeded in convincing Afghan factions to unite and sign “Islamabad Accord “for establishing peace in Afghanistan and the region.

Mr Nawaz Sharif gained in stature when his government conducted nuclear tests on May 28, 1998 in response to India’s nuclear blasts. This raised Pakistan’s prestige globally and its security was made impregnable.

In May, 2007, he signed the Charter of Democracy (CoD) with leader of PPP Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto and other prominent political leaders in London for strengthening and sustaining democracy in the country.

Since 2008, he has played the role of a statesman by committing to uphold democratic values and traditions and work for the welfare of the people of Pakistan. His strict adherence to these ideals paved the way for completion of the constitutional term by the elected Assemblies.

Pakistan Muslim League-N President Muhammad Nawaz Sharif created history when he was elected as the 27th Prime Minister for the third time by securing 244 votes in the National Assembly.

Mr Nawaz Sharif is a family man, devoted son and an affectionate father. He is God fearing; and his love for the people is manifest when he reaches out to the poor and the oppressed to redress their grievances in their hour of distress.

Mr Nawaz Sharif and Begum Kalsoom Nawaz Sharif have two sons and two daughters who are all married and well settled in life.

H.M. KING ABDULLAH II
King of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan

His Majesty King Abdullah II is the 43rd generation direct descendant of the Prophet Muhammad.King Abdullah assumed his constitutional powers as King of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan on February 7,1999, the day his father, the late King Hussein, passed away.

Born in Amman on January 30, 1962, His Majesty is the eldest son of the late King Hussein and has four brothers and six sisters. King Abdullah began his education at the Islamic Educational College and received his secondary education at St. Edmund’s School in Surrey, England, Eaglebrook School in Massachusetts, then at Deerfield Academy in the United States of America. In 1980, King Abdullah entered the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in the United Kingdom, where he received his military education.

King Abdullah attended Oxford University in 1984, undergoing a one-year Special Studies course in International Politics and World Affairs. Upon returning home, His Majesty continued his military path, gaining experience and working his way to the rank of Captain and the Commander of a Tank Company in the 91st Armored Brigade. From 1986-1987, also as Captain, His Majesty was attached to the Royal Jordanian Air Force’s Helicopter Anti-Tank Wing as a Tactics Instructor, where he received qualification as a Cobra Attack Helicopter Pilot.

In 1987, King Abdullah attended the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and was in residence as a Mid-Career Fellow. He undertook Advanced Study and Research in International Affairs under the auspices of the Master of Science in Foreign Service Program.

Upon returning home, His Majesty was assigned to the 17th Tank Battalion, 2nd Royal Guards Brigade and in the summer of 1989, he became Battalion 2nd-in-Command, with the rank of Major. In 1991, King Abdullah was the Armor Representative in the Office of the Inspector General. He was promoted to Lt. Colonel at the end of the year and assumed command of the 2nd Armored Car Regiment in the 40th Brigade.

Upon handing over the battalion in January 1993, King Abdullah was promoted to full Colonel and assigned as deputy commander of the Jordanian Special Forces. In June 1994 he was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General, and assumed command of the Royal Jordanian Special Forces, after having served as Deputy Commander for six months. His Majesty was appointed Commander of the Special Operations Command on October 1997, and in May 1998, he was promoted to the rank of Major General.

In addition to his career as an army officer, King Abdullah has served his country many times in the official capacity of Regent in the absence of His Majesty King Hussein, and he regularly traveled with the late King Hussein. Before his accession to the throne, King Abdullah represented Jordan and his late father on visits to many countries throughout the world, and developed close relationships with leaders and officials of a number of Arab countries during the course of his career.

King Abdullah is committed to building on the legacy left by the late King Hussein to further Jordan’s democratic institutionalization and political pluralism, while working for a just and comprehensive peace. Following in his late father’s footsteps, King Abdullah has placed great emphasis on improving Jordan’s economy and streamlining the government which will lay the foundations to allow Jordan to enter the next century with confidence.

King Abdullah married Queen Rania on June 10, 1993. Their Majesties have one son, Prince al-Hussein, born June 28, 1994, and one daughter, Princess Iman, born September 27, 1996.

King Abdullah is a qualified frogman, pilot and a free-fall parachutist. His other interests include car racing (he is a former Jordanian National Rally Racing Champion), water sports, scuba diving and collecting ancient weapons and armaments.

His Majesty Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mu’izzaddin Waddaulah, the 29th Sultan of Brunei was born on the 15th of July 1946. He ascended the throne on October 5th, 1967 following the voluntary abdication of his father, the late Al-Marhum Sultan Haji Omar Ali Saifuddien Sa’adul Khairi Waddien.

His Majesty started his early education in Brunei Darussalam and then went on to Malaysia to further his studies. He then trained as an officer at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, UK and was commissioned as Captain in 1967. His Majesty also has been awarded with honorary degrees from various institutes of higher education namely University of Oxford, King’s College London and the University of Aberdeen in the United Kingdom; the National University of Singapore; Gadjah Mada University in Indonesia; and Chulalongkorn University in Thailand. His Majesty is currently the Chancellor of Universiti Brunei Darussalam.

As the head of state, His Majesty is also the Prime Minister, Minister of Defence, Minister of Finance, and Head of the Religious Council.

Under His Majesty’s leadership, Brunei introduced Islamic Banking in the early 1990s and has since seen tremendous growth. As of Q2 2013, it held a significant role in Brunei Darussalam’s banking industry with total assets and deposits respectively accounted for 40.7% and 39.7% of the total market. Similarly the Takaful industry has been able to penetrate the insurance market with a sizeable market share of 59.8% (gross premiums) and 33.3% (assets). Further to this, Short Term Sukuk Al-Ijarah Money Market Programme was also introduced.

H.R.H. Prince Salman bin Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa was born on October 21, 1969. He completed his primary education in Bahrain, followed by higher studies abroad. H.R.H. obtained a Bachelor's degree in political science in 1992 from the American University in Washington, US.

He then went on to obtain a Master's degree in history and philosophy from Cambridge, England, in 1994.

Prince Salman was appointed Vice-Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Bahrain Centre for Studies and Research (BCSR) in 1992, then chairman in 1995. In 1995 he was also appointed Defense Under-Secretary.

His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al-Khalifa was appointed Crown Prince of the State of Bahrain by H.M. King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa then, Amir of the State of Bahrain, on March 9, 1999. The Cabinet held an extraordinary session at the Riffa Palace, during which H.R.H. Prince Salman was sworn in as Crown Prince.

H.R.H. Prince Salman's various interests include the environment, culture, sports and education. Prince Salman is fluent in Arabic and English. He is married and has two sons and two daughters.

Najib Razak was born into politics. Both his father and uncle were Prime Minister. When his father died he became the youngest MP in Malaysia’s history in 1976, and has since held many major ministerial portfolios. When he became Prime Minister in April 2009, critics called him the ultimate insider. But he has taken many by surprise, implementing the most far-reaching political and economic reforms since Malaysia’s independence.

REFORMS
The Prime Minister has, for example: repealed the colonial-era Internal Security Act, which permitted indefinite detention without trial; ended Malaysia’s 60-year State of Emergency; introduced measures to increase media freedom, such as scrapping restrictions on newspaper publishing licenses; reformed the Universities and University Colleges Act to allow undergraduates to participate in political activities; created the Peaceful Assembly Act, for the first time enshrining in law the right to peaceful protest; announced the repeal of the Sedition Act to strengthen freedom of speech; repealed the Banishment Act; repealed the Restricted Residences Act; and implemented various electoral reforms.

His Government Transformation Programme has fundamentally changed the provision of government services – improving education, widening access to healthcare, developing rural infrastructure, expanding public transport, reducing poverty, cutting crime and corruption and bringing down the cost of living. Alongside this, his Economic Transformation Programme has significantly liberalised the economy – creating more than 300,000 jobs, raising living standards, encouraging foreign investment and turning Malaysia into one of Asia’s most dynamic and successful economies.

1MALAYSIA
The Prime Minister has also introduced the ‘1Malaysia’ concept, stressing the importance of national unity regardless of race or religious belief. 1Malaysia has also delivered improvements on the ground. For example, more than 1.5 million people have passed through new 1Malaysia health clinics, where anyone can receive treatment for any condition for about 30 cents.

MOVEMENT OF THE MODERATES
In terms of foreign policy, the Prime Minister has called for a new global Movement of the Moderates to combat extremism, attracting support from President Barack Obama and Prime Minister David Cameron, among others. In 2011, Najib Razak became the first Muslim head of government to unequivocally condemn suicide bombing and label it as un-Islamic. He has also contributed to the coalition effort in Afghanistan by sending in female Muslim doctors.

THE RT HON. DAVID CAMERON MP
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

David Cameron became Prime Minister in May 2010, leading a Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government. He has been the Conservative MP for Witney in West Oxfordshire since 2001.

EDUCATION David studied at Eton College before graduating from Oxford University with a first class degree in politics, philosophy and economics.

POLITICAL CAREER Before being elected as an MP, David worked for the Conservative Party Research Department and then as a special adviser in government, first to the Chancellor of the Exchequer and then to the Home Secretary.

In Parliament he held a number of positions on the Opposition Front Bench, including Shadow Deputy Leader of the House of Commons, Front Bench Spokesman for Local Government Finance, and Head of Policy Coordination in the run-up to the 2005 General Election. He was also a member of the influential House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee from 2001 to 2003.

He was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Education and Skills after the 2005 General Election and, on a mandate to change and modernise the Party, he was elected Leader of the Conservative Party in December 2005.

In 2010 the Conservative Party and Liberal Democrats formed a coalition government. David became Prime Minister, making him the youngest Prime Minister in 198 years.

CAREER OUTSIDE POLITICS David spent 7 years at Carlton Communications where he served on the management board.

CAMERON MP, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom PERSONAL LIFE David is married to Samantha. They have 3 children and live in London and West Oxfordshire. Sadly, their eldest child, Ivan, who suffered from cerebral palsy and severe epilepsy, died in February 2009.

PRIME MINISTER The Prime Minister is head of the UK government and is ultimately responsible for the policy and decisions of the government.

As head of the UK government the Prime Minister also: • oversees the operation of the Civil Service and government agencies • appoints members of the government • is the principal government figure in the House of Commons
MINISTER FOR THE CIVIL SERVICE The Minister for the Civil Service is responsible for regulating the Civil Service. The Civil Service (Management Functions) Act of 1992, allows the Minister for the Civil Service to delegate power to other ministers and devolved administrations. This role was created in 1968 and is always held by the Prime Minister.

FIRST LORD OF THE TREASURY The First Lord of the Treasury is one of the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury. This role is usually held by the Prime Minister.

Since the 17th century, the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury have collectively carried out duties that were previously held by the Lord High Treasurer (head of Her Majesty’s Treasury).

The Lords Commissioners of the Treasury also include: • the Second Lord of the Treasury - the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who has most of the functional financial responsibilities • Junior Lords Commissioners of the Treasury - other members of the government, usually government whips in the House of Commons